Photo | Courtesy | Worcester Restaurant Group
Caitlyn Carolan
April 5, 2021
Worcester Restaurant Group passing baton to next generation
Photo | Grant Welker
The Worcester Restaurant Group's One Eleven Chop House on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester
By Grant Welker
After more than four decades running three of Worcester's best known restaurants — initially The Sole Proprietor, and later Via Italian Table and One Eleven Chop House — Robb and Madeleine Ahlquist are ready to pass management of the group to the next generation.
Their daughter, Caitlyn Carolan, and her husband, Keith, are taking over the Worcester Restaurant Group, the company said Monday. Caitlyn Carolan is the new president, leading a Worcester company whose restaurants have been longtime mainstays in the city's restaurant scene.
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Carolan is now responsible for directing and overseeing operations, marketing and finances of all three restaurants. She takes over for her parents at a time when the restaurant industry is working to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, which even in the best of cases forced restaurants to quickly pivot to online ordering, take-out and outdoor dining. The Worcester Restaurant Group kept its restaurants open throughout just about the entire health crisis.
Robb and Madeleine Ahlquist of Shrewsbury opened the seafood restaurant Sole Proprietor in 1979, added the steakhouse One Eleven Chop House in 1999, and Via next door in 2007. They will continue to be involved in strategic planning and other aspects of the business.
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The Carolans, who also live in Shrewsbury, are not new to the company.
Both have worked in management positions for the Worcester Restaurant Group since 2007. Caitlyn Carolan was most recently the COO, and Keith Carolan the company's beverage director and Via's general manager. She earned degrees in business and design from Syracuse University in New York, her parents' alma mater, and before joining Worcester Restaurant Group worked for two design companies, Crate & Barrel and Barbara Herman Interiors, and an apparel manufacturer, Haddad Brands.
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Anonymous
April 9, 2021
This is a terrific transition, Congratulations to the Ahlquist family.
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