There’s much more to the restaurant business than food. Just ask Joia Johnson, the general counsel of RARE Hospitality in Atlanta.

Johnson, who’s been with the company for seven years, says restaurants are very much a real estate business. Each time the company opens a new eatery, that means a new building and a new piece of land. So it’s fortunate that Johnson spent some time as GC of Atlanta construction company H.J. Russell & Co. before joining RARE.