Leadership Transition
Pacific Catch, the 23-year-old West Coast seafood brand backed by private equity firm Brentwood Associates, has appointed Sam Hallak as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Hallak succeeds co-founder Keith Cox, who transitions to a board director role. The move signals a deliberate push toward operational scale for a chain that has grown to 16 units across the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego.
Hallak arrives with a clear mandate: sharpen hospitality standards, tighten unit-level operational discipline, and build the leadership infrastructure needed to support the brand's next growth phase. His hire follows Pacific Catch's southward expansion beyond its Northern California home base, punctuated by a May 2026 restaurant opening in Brea — the chain's latest foothold in Southern California's competitive casual-dining corridor.
Operator Credentials
Hallak brings more than 20 years of multi-unit, full-service restaurant experience to the role. Most recently he served as Chief Operating Officer of Innovative Dining Group, overseeing a 16-restaurant portfolio that included Sushi Roku, BOA Steakhouse, and Katana — brands with strong AUV profiles in premium casual and upscale dining. Before that, he spent six years at The Kitchen Restaurant Group, advancing from Director of Operations to COO, and also held an area director post at Tavistock Restaurant Collection and spent nearly a decade at The Palm Restaurant Group.
That résumé maps directly to Pacific Catch's positioning: a modern, casual fish house concept built around sustainable seafood, Pacific Rim flavors, and what the brand calls Aloha-inspired hospitality. Translating that identity into repeatable unit-economics at scale is the central challenge Hallak has been hired to solve.
Growth Outlook
Rahul Aggarwal, Partner at Brentwood Associates — the lead equity investor — pointed to operational discipline and hospitality instincts as the qualities that set Hallak apart. "I am confident that he has the experience and strategic vision to lead Pacific Catch to new levels of success," Aggarwal said. Board director Mike Hislop added that Hallak's track record across multiple high-profile brands would be "invaluable as we continue to build on the company's strong foundation."
For operators tracking the better-seafood segment, Pacific Catch's trajectory is worth watching. The full-service casual-dining seafood category has faced persistent headwinds — rising protein costs, labor-intensive prep, and competition from fast-casual fish concepts — yet Pacific Catch has added Southern California units while many casual-dining peers have pruned portfolios. Hallak's COO-to-CEO path at a comparable-sized independent suggests Brentwood is prioritizing systems-building over rapid unit growth in the near term, a classic private-equity playbook before a broader franchise or area development push.
With 16 units already spread across four major California markets, Pacific Catch has the geographic footprint to test AUV improvement strategies — menu evolution, daypart optimization, and off-premise channel development — before committing to a larger unit-growth target. Hallak's emphasis on menu evolution "keeping pace with guests" also hints at potential LTO activity designed to drive traffic and check average. Operators and investors in the full-service seafood space will be watching same-store sales trends as a benchmark for whether the new leadership team's operational investments translate to the unit economics needed to justify further California expansion.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
