Stratis Morfogen Reveals How He Disrupted Everything

After successfully staving off the cut-throat demands from the restaurant industry, threats from the mob and strict COVID lockdowns, what is restauranteur to do? The answer, of course, is to publish a tell-all memoir wrapped in a business book on how to disrupt everything.

Photo Credit: Daniel Kwak, @dkcre8ive

This is what Stratis Morfogen’s thought when he decided to release Be A Disruptor: Streetwise Lessons for Entrepreneurs – From the Mob to Mandates. Morfogen has been a successful New York restauranteur for decades and his story is like none other. Morfogen has grown a reputation within the restaurant industry for his forward thinking, marketing and brazenness. He recently spoke to Haute Living about his new book and what it means for today’s entrepreneur.

Haute Living: Given your extensive history in the restaurant industry, why did you decide to release your tell-all book now?

Stratis Morfogen: The experience our industry went through during harsh and unjustified COVID lockdowns these past two years forced me to realize if I was ever going to tell my story, the time was now. Many around me have urged me to tell my story for the past 30 years but I decided now was the right time. This time felt appropriate to divulge my experiences from the mob to mandates and how I disrupted my industry.

HL: What are you most proud of from the book?

SM: I read many biography and business nonfiction books and I felt they all started to repeat the same analytics.

Be A Disruptor is a unique style of business and inspirational book as it is supported by real life stories on how I dealt with the mob, who had a stranglehold on the hospitality business in New York City, led by John Gotti Jr. The book explains how I dealt with him and told his crew to go f*** themselves. The story takes the reader through a wicked NYC journey that has never been told before – revealing how the Gambino’s tried to take me down and how the two most powerful Genovese bosses made me untouchable.

Photo Credit: Daniel Kwak, @dkcre8ive

HL: What is the biggest reason for aspiring entrepreneurs or hopeful restauranteurs to read this book?

SM: The true stories and the honesty of success, and just as important, the failures.

There is no path to success without failure. To be an entrepreneur is many sleepless nights and many painful decisions, especially when you’re a disruptor. The first one through the wall gets a bloody nose.

Disrupt everything.

Photo Credit: Daniel Kwak, @dkcre8ive