Jeffrey Drazin

Managing Partner

Jeffrey Drazin is a managing partner of the “San” brand of restaurants that includes Ramen-san, Sushi-san, The Omakase Room, Tallboy Taco and il Porcellino.

Without a doubt, Jeffrey knew that he belonged in the hospitality industry. At age 16, he scooped ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins (where he learned there is no better flavor than Peanut Butter ‘n’ Chocolate), and during college he worked at Ned Kelly’s steakhouse. There, Jeffrey discovered the different facets of restaurant life: He worked as a line and prep cook in the heat of the kitchen before eventually transitioning to the front of the house as a server. But it was his internship at Lettuce Entertain You Restaurant's Lincolnshire location of Wildfire before his final year of college that made him realize restaurants are exactly where he was meant to be.

After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from the University of Illinois in 2001, Jeffrey joined Lettuce as a manager at Wildfire in Minnesota. Under the leadership of the Wildfire partners, Jeffrey was mentored on how to run a successful restaurant. From there, he was part of the opening teams for three different Wildfires and landed as the General Manager at the Lincolnshire location of Wildfire.

In 2014, Jeffrey began to oversee the 59 W. Hubbard building that included Ramen-san, Paris Club Bistro & Bar and Studio Paris Nightclub. In early 2016, Jeffrey helped open a rustic Italian restaurant, il Porcellino in the former Paris Club space.

In late 2017, Jeffrey and the team opened Sushi-san in Chicago's River North. Ramen-San Whisky Bar in Chicago’s West Loop and Ramen-San Deluxe in the Streeterville neighborhood followed in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The San brand of restaurants has since expanded to include SUshi-san in Willis Tower as well as a ten-seat omakase concept,  The Omakase Room at Sushi-san. In addition to the San restaurants, Jeffrey worked with his partners to open a grab-and-go taco spot, Tallboy Taco in Streeterville in 2020 as well as the tapas restaurant Lil Ba-Ba-Reeba! in River North in 2021.