About
A chef-led chicken concept.
Created for high-traffic food service without unnecessary complexity.
Clients & Partners
Food credibility
Award-winning chicken with a founder-led story.
Varsity Bird gives venues a chicken concept with culinary proof, recognizable hospitality leadership, and a food story buyers can put in front of fans, students, and guests.
Founders
Two founders. One venue-ready chicken platform.
Varsity Bird pairs Chef Art Smith's culinary authority with Joe Germanotta's hospitality systems experience, giving buyers both a recognizable food story and a practical launch model.
Varsity Bird is led by two builders with different jobs and the same standard. Joe Germanotta turns hospitality ideas into repeatable systems. Chef Art Smith turns everyday chicken into food with a point of view, credibility, and emotional pull.
Together, they give venues more than a logo. They bring a practical operating model, a chef-authored menu, and a founder story that can carry from a campus dining hall to a sold-out arena.
Founder, Hospitality Systems
Joe Germanotta
Joe Germanotta does not talk about the restaurant business. He lives it.
For decades, Joe has been in the trenches of food and beverage, building concepts, fixing operations, and creating the kind of hospitality experiences that turn first-time guests into regulars. He is not a name on a wall. He is the person who shows up on a Tuesday to figure out why the line is too long and what to do about it before the weekend rush.
As the founder of Joanne Trattoria in New York City, Joe built something rare: a neighborhood restaurant with genuine soul that also happened to run like a machine. Food, live entertainment, and community all under one roof, profitable, repeatable, and beloved. That restaurant did not just feed people. It became part of the neighborhood's identity. That is the model behind everything Joe builds.
At Varsity Bird, Joe is responsible for making the dream operational. Every process, every training protocol, every sourcing decision, and every system that allows a two-person team to execute a world-class menu in a concession window on game night, that is Joe. He is the reason venues can go from a signed agreement to a fully running operation in two to three weeks. And he is the reason that operation is still running at the same standard six months later.
Restaurant operationsVenue partnershipsLaunch execution
Great food earns attention. Great systems earn a living. Varsity Bird is built to do both.
Founder, Culinary Direction
Chef Art Smith
Chef Art Smith has spent his life proving that extraordinary food has no ceiling and no excuse for being ordinary.
Born in Jasper, Florida, Art built his career on a simple conviction: cooking is an act of love, and that love does not diminish when you are serving a crowd. That philosophy took him from the kitchens of the American South to the private table of Oprah Winfrey, where he served as her personal chef for over a decade. It took him to the White House five times, for five presidents. Most recently, it took him to Rome, where he was selected to lead the dining program at Borgo Laudato Si', the historic Vatican estate inaugurated by Pope Leo XIV, one of the most distinguished culinary appointments in the world.
Along the way, Art became one of America's most decorated chefs: a James Beard Award honoree, a restaurateur, a cookbook author, a philanthropist, and a co-owner of six restaurants built on the belief that a great meal changes the room.
At Varsity Bird, Art is not a brand partner. He is the culinary architect. Every recipe on the menu is his. Every quality standard is set by him. The same rigor that earned him a seat at Oprah's table and an invitation from Pope Leo XIV lives in every sandwich, every bowl, and every nugget, whether it is served in a campus dining hall or a sold-out arena.
Chef-led menu standardsBrand credibilityComfort-food storytelling