Rob Clement Bounces Back From Tragedy To Transform Meshugganah’s Business Model

When Meshugganah owner Rob Clement’s wife, Franki, was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2022, Rob took a step back from the food industry.

He had built up his name in Charlotte’s food scene, becoming a beloved chef in The Porter’s House before launching his own venture with Meshugganah. But as much as he loved the kitchen, his family came first.

In January of this year, Franki passed away at just 35 years old following a courageous battle. Rob was forced to reevaluate his priorities once again, faced with balancing his personal and professional life as a young widower — a single father of two in an industry that required his physical presence in the kitchen at nearly all hours.

”It’s just very difficult to cook and be a family man,” Clement said. “It’s a difficult balance to achieve.”

Since his wife’s death, he’s explored his options in returning to the workforce, both in the kitchen and fully outside of the restaurant industry. What he’s landed on is a new venture that allows him to capitalize on his 20+ years of experience in restaurants without demanding the hours that come with running one.

Enter Clement’s newest business model: Meshugganah Hospitality Consulting.

A tragic loss and the transformation that followed

Originally a Jewish pop-up deli launched out of Free Range Brewing in 2020, Meshugganah’s famous pastrami sandwiches could be found in breweries, coffee shops and similar spaces across the city in its early years.

Building on the popularity of the pop-up, Clement signed a lease to open Meshugganah’s first brick-and-mortar location. After that fell through in the 11th hour, Clement operated in a ghost kitchen inside City Kitch, a shared-use commercial kitchen in west Charlotte, until Franki’s diagnosis in early 2022.

“When that happened, I kind of put everything on pause, wanting to be available for my wife and for my kids,” Clement told Queen City Nerve. “I kind of just took a step back and reevaluated everything, tried to figure out how to be the best husband and father I could be and food kind of took a back seat to that.”

During Franki’s battle with cancer, Rob worked with prior employer Jon Dressler of Rare Roots Hospitality — the restaurant group behind establishments like Dressler’s, Fin & Fino, The Porter’s House and more — to run Meshugganah as a mainstay within Joan’s Bakery & Deli, which opened in Midtown in December 2023.

After fighting valiantly for three years, Franki Clement passed on Jan. 8, 2025. Rob shut down Meshugganah in March.

Having taken a year-long break from the business’s social media page, he took to Instagram on July 16 to announce the reason behind his hiatus and the his plan moving forward.

“…[Franki] was the fiercest person I’ve ever known — my partner in life and in business — and the heart behind everything Meshugganah stood for,” Clement said in the post. “In the wake of that loss, I’ve had to rebuild. As a father. As a human. And now, as a professional — on new terms.”

Through his wife’s illness and in the wake of her death, Clement did a lot of soul searching to figure out what exactly makes him happy in life.

As a father of two, the common denominator he continued to come to was his family.

The first week that Clement went back to work after Franki’s passing, his 7-year-old daughter Calliope came down with strep throat. Family members who had been in town to help since his wife’s death were no longer there, and Clement quickly realized he couldn’t be in two places at once.

Being physically present was a requirement in the bakery, something that would take away from the time he spent with his kids.

“I realized that it was going to be very difficult for me to be physically at the bakery and then also available for my kids when they needed me in a time where they probably need me more than ever,” he said. “So I decided to take a little break, which I did, and then since taking that break to kind of regather myself and figure out what was next.”

During that time, Clement began interviewing for jobs outside of the food industry in an attempt to be more present for his kids.

“I kept struggling with the fact that I was trying to make a resume that had only food experience work in the non-food world,” he said. “I would interview with people and I find myself just talking about restaurants and the way they work and the way they operate and how I was a part of that.”

After countless interviews, Clement came to the realization that he could still balance a job in the food industry while being present for his kids, he just needed to be creative about how to do it.

While he may not be able to be physically present in front of a stove anymore, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be a part of a restaurant’s daily operations.

When an opportunity to participate in restaurant consulting arose, Clement jumped on it.

With 20 years of kitchen experience working in several successful restaurants — and a few failures — Clement’s firsthand knowledge of the restaurant business isn’t going to waste in his new venture.

Learning the ropes in a new venture

Since Meshugganah’s transformation from a pop-up deli shop to a hospitality consulting firm, Clement has worked with several businesses — varying from restaurants to food trucks to breweries — to provide a fresh set of eyes and guidance for their business behind the scenes.

Clement said there are two folds to the services Meshugganah now provides — one for new businesses and one for existing establishments.

Clement takes on new business projects on a case-by-case basis. Every food-related business has different needs from a consultant ranging from full menu development and organization to hiring and training staff.

He’s purposeful about ensuring he can help each of his clients reach their full potential.

“As people come to me for different opportunities, I reevaluate what the scope of my work is and what I’m capable of doing,” he said.

When existing businesses come to Clement, he focuses more on providing a fresh perspective on their issues from someone who’s been through either the same problem or a similar one.

Using his experience working with successful restaurants comes in handy but Clement said the experiences he’s had in businesses that failed are more important to his consulting work.

Looking back on his faults with Meshugganah, for example, allows Clement to see the mistakes that led to him being unable to open the brick-and-mortar restaurant.

”Those were all learning experiences and they’ve made me better at what I do,” Clement said. “I’m grateful for the journey I’ve been on and I’m hopeful for the future and what I can help do for people in the business that I love.”
Although the business is still in its infancy stages, Clement has already worked with established businesses to update their menus, retrain staff, develop hospitality analytic programs and track inventory.

“People tell me what they need and I come up with a strategy on how I can help them achieve their goals,” he said.

Consulting also gives him the creative freedom that he lacked in Meshugganah’s former concept.

Read More: Getting a First Look at Charlotte’s Two New Jewish Delis

The deli was famous for its pastrami sandwiches. No matter what changes Clement implemented to keep the business successful, he would have to continue making pastrami sandwiches, he said.

Now, Clement is excited to be a part of creating and expanding upon different menus and taking on multiple projects at a time while helping business owners make connections among existing clients.

While Clement couldn’t tell Queen City Nerve the exact projects he’s working on, he’s excited to announce them soon.

”I want to do good in the industry,” Clement said. “I’m very passionate about the industry, and I want to do my part to help small businesses, especially nowadays when it’s so difficult to operate a restaurant in today’s climate.”

Making time for family

While starting his business from scratch, Clement is working more hours than he was while in the kitchen. The difference, however, is that he’s able to be more flexible with that time.

While his kids were in school, Clement would wake up at 5:30 a.m., get his kids ready for and to school then work while they were away.

Although some aspects of the job such as training staff have to be done in person, Clement estimated that he’s able to do 85% of his work remotely.

After he picks the kids up from school and gets them to bed, he’s back on his computer to finish his work.
“I’m there for my kids,” he said. “I can be available on the weekends … at night for dinner and bedtime and all those things that are so important to raising your kids.”

Clement is also able to cook for his kids instead of slaving away behind a restaurant stove on nights and weekends. That alone wasn’t a capability he had when he started Meshugganah the first time, he said.

“My kids are first and foremost,” he said. “It’s being able to show them that there’s ways to be resilient in the worst possible times and show them that life doesn’t always deal you the hand you expect, but you can figure it out and have a life that you enjoy and that you’re happy with and proud of if you work hard toward it.”