Gabriel Stulman dreamt of building a restaurant which had delicious food and brought the level of service one expected at fine dining establishments, but wanted to do it wearing t-shirts and jeans while listening to the Roots and Kanye West.

A University of Wisconsin graduate recently recognized as a “Forward under 40,” Stulman brought his experience in the Madison food service industry with him on his journey through the competitive Manhattan restaurant scene.

Stulman, who graduated from UW in 2003, moved to New York to pursue his dream of entering the restaurant industry. His current collection of six restaurants and has received the attention of many publications. In 2012, Esquire Magazine named him restauranteur of the year.

“I believed there was a whole generation of diners in their 20s who like hip hop music and who know the difference between six different kinds of mushrooms and the different varietals of grapes from the Rome region,” Stulman said. “I wanted to build a place for them.”

His passion for restaurants grew during his four years working at Madison’s Café Montmartre during his undergraduate years.

He said the café taught him the power of neighborhood institutions.

“That’s what changed the course of my life: working at that place and seeing the culture and identity and power of building a neighborhood institution; being a part of people’s lives and being part of the fabric of the community,” Stulman said.

During Stulman’s time at UW, he worked long hours to pay for school, but doing this allowed him to eventually travel around the world and graduate nearly debt free, he said.

“Whenever everybody else was going out to bars, I was working, but I made great things happen with that revenue,” he said.

Stulman moved to New York because he knew establishing himself in such a competitive city would be a powerful motivator to improve, he said.

After initially working in Manhattan restaurants, Stulman co-founded The Little Owl and Market Table. His vision for his restaurants was to create a space for an incoming wave of sophisticated but more casual diners.

After selling The Little Owl and Market Table to his business partner, Stulman and his wife founded a seafood restaurant named Joseph Leonard. Initially, Stulman staffed Joseph Leonard and some of the first new restaurants with college friends, leading The New York Times in 2011 to refer to the restaurant group as “Little Wisco.”

Stulman said initially his staff consisted of 85 percent former Wisconsin residents. Forty of the original employees remain, although the name no longer carries as much weight because the restaurant group employs 300 people, Stulman said.

A strong advocate of hospitality in restaurants, Stulman said Wisconsin’s version of hospitality plays into his strategy.

“Our hospitality is a mashup of the warmth and enthusiasm in the genuine sincerity of Wisconsin hospitality with the intense, competitive nature and orientation to detail that constitutes New York hospitality,” Stulman said.

For UW students soon to graduate, Stulman urges patience in aspiring to their dreams.

He said he increasingly sees young people unwilling to put in work.

“I totally support people breaking out on their own, but there is a fine balance,” Stulman said. “Everybody is just looking for the get rich quick idea. Have your dreams and pursue those, but also get into the workforce.”