Rob Clement Rebuilds His Business After A Devastating Personal Loss

Rob Clement is a longtime chef and owner of Meshugganah, the beloved pop-up Jewish deli. In June, he took to social media to announce that his business model was changing. Meshugganah would transition to a hospitality consulting firm to help restaurants, food trucks, and breweries in need of guidance in the culinary industry. “I’ve taken everything I’ve learned from years in the trenches,” Clement wrote on Instagram, “and turned it into a service to help others succeed.”

His page had been quiet for more than a year. In January, his wife, Franki, died after a long battle with breast cancer. She left behind Clement and their two children, Calliope, 7, and Oscar, 5. Franki was just 35.

It was a devastating blow after what had already been a turbulent five years for Clement. The 39-year-old was executive chef at The Porter’s House when the pandemic hit. First, he was furloughed. Then his pay was temporarily cut in half. So he taught Zoom cooking classes from home and started making challah and kugel in his spare time.

That summer, the team at Free Range Brewing asked Clement to do a Jewish deli pop-up. He called it Meshugganah, Yiddish for “crazy,” and people waited in line for up to three hours for his pastrami sandwiches. Things were looking up.

Meshugganah’s beloved Pastrami Sandwich Pimento Cheese Kinish

In May 2021, he signed a lease on a restaurant space on North Graham Street that didn’t pan out. By December, he changed course and moved into a ghost kitchen inside City Kitch West End. He still planned to open a brick-and-mortar for Meshugganah, but then Franki received her diagnosis. “After a month of doctor’s appointments and seeing the writing on the wall, I decided to pump the brakes and be available to Franki and the kids,” Clement says. “Doing a ghost kitchen would require a big time and financial commitment. It was too risky of a proposition not knowing what the medical bills would be, even though it was my passion project.”

He dissolved the business and did a few odd jobs. Then, restaurateur Jon Dressler, owner of The Porter’s House, reached out with a new opportunity. Dressler was planning to open Joan’s Bakery & Deli in the Metropolitan in midtown Charlotte and wanted Clement to run the bakery. “The plan was for it to also house Meshugganah,” Clement says. “Jon was really flexible with my needs. Not many employers would be that understanding and work with me.” 

As Franki’s illness got worse toward the end of 2024, Clement stepped back to be with her and the kids. “I didn’t take a lot of time after she passed,” he says. “I had my in-laws staying with us, so I went back to work as an escape, but it turned out that wasn’t really working for me. Simultaneously, we decided to shut down (the Meshugganah side of the operation) because the deli wasn’t yielding a lot of profit. So I did a lot of soul-searching.”

It was clear a chef’s hours weren’t conducive to being a single parent, so Clement started applying for jobs outside the hospitality field. Then a colleague in the restaurant industry reached out for some business advice. It jolted Clement awake. He crunched the numbers and realized he could do consulting work and pay his bills. He made the decision to bring back Meshugganah as a consulting firm. 

In his new role, he works with restaurants to figure out how to boost sales and profits. That might involve scaling back inventory or revamping a menu. “I can step in with a fresh set of eyes and dial things in and make things work better operationally,” he says. New restaurants might want a full-scale menu build-out, staff training, or help navigating a lease. “I’ve done it unsuccessfully, which has taught me a lot.” 

His client roster has been growing steadily, but Clement won’t drop any names. “Confidentiality with this is important, because working with me could be a sign that things aren’t going well,” he says. “It’s a hard pill to swallow to ask for help in this industry, and I think it’s OK to ask for help. I’m here to offer advice, insight, whatever I can. I want to make the hospitality industry in this city better.”

He’d love to eventually hire a team as he brings on more clients (“I need to figure out how to get myself a paycheck first”), but, for now, Clement is just happy to have a gig that allows him to put Calliope and Oscar to bed every night. “I miss the camaraderie of the kitchen, but I don’t miss not seeing my family,” he says. “That’s a hard part of this business, and I want to make it easier for people to balance their life with their work. I can’t change the operating hours, but I can help with creative strategies so there’s more opportunity to step away on a slow night and still have it be profitable.”