Airport Experience® News - ACDBE Issue 2026

Right: Cava is the flagship restaurant concept of Crews Hospitality. The company currently operates four locations, including Cava at DCA (pictured).

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Nick and Rob Crews of Crews Hospitality Are Honoring Their Heritage

BY SALLY KRAL

With industry titans like Bob and Debi Crews, who founded ACDBE-certified concessionaire Crews Hospitality in 1972, as their parents, it’s no wonder Nick and Rob Crews have been so successful in the airport business—it’s practically in their blood. The brothers didn’t set out to join their family’s business but, as Rob puts it, “sometimes your heritage calls,” and they answered that call in 2008. Rob was working in hospitality in New York while Nick was pursuing a law degree and working at a record label in Los Angeles when an opportunity came up at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) that intrigued both brothers, so they helped Crews Hospitality put in a bid. Up until that point Crews had only ever operated retail locations, but for this bid they made the strategic decision to pivot to food and beverage, which meant Rob could bring in his hospitality experience while Nick used his law degree to help sign brands and handle the legal side. “When this opportunity came around it felt like the stars aligning,” Rob says. Winning that contract, which included opening the company’s first three restaurants at LAX between 2009 and 2011, encouraged the brothers to pursue careers at Crews Hospitality full-time, starting from the bottom and working their way up. “We both rose with our positions in the company from 2009 through 2019, and that was a period of rapid growth. We opened probably 20 locations in three different

markets over that period of time,” Nick says. “Our father was still majority owner of the business, but Rob and I had spearheaded the growth, raised the capital, built the locations out and were operating the locations.” By 2019, Nick and Rob had strong visions for the future of Crews Hospitality. They approached their father about taking over the business so he and their mother could retire. “He loves us, but he wasn’t just going to hand it over,” Nick says with a laugh. “Rob and I had to go out and find a capital partner to raise capital to buy our parents out of the company.” They succeeded and officially took over majority interest in the company in December 2019. They hit the ground running when they took over, with multiple bids in at numerous airports, but then March 2020 hit and everything came to a halt. “We went from almost 1,000 employees in 35 locations in four different markets to either furloughing and laying off almost 950 employees and closing all locations except for probably two,” Nick says. “But Rob and I decided to dig in and get scrappy. Rob was driving the delivery truck in Atlanta and here in LA we pivoted and started doing catering at a golf course.” Rob points out that the training they received when they first began at Crews Hospitality proved a huge boon. “When I say we started from the bottom, I mean we were working in warehouses, sweeping, manning cash registers.... It meant that when Covid hit, it was like, well, I know how to drive a

Above: Nick Crews, CEO and manager partner, Crews Hospitality.

Above: Rob Crews, chief development officer and managing partner, Crews Hospitality.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2025