Richie Palmer: Age, Net Worth, Career and Bio

Richie Palmer is an American restaurateur, entrepreneur, and occasional actor born on October 12, 1954, in the Bronx, New York. Now 71 years old, he is the founder of Mulberry Street Pizzeria, a celebrity-favoured New York-style pizza chain with four locations across Los Angeles and a fifth at Resorts World Las Vegas. He gained wider public attention through his marriage to actress Raquel Welch from 1999 to 2004, and has maintained close friendships with Hollywood figures including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, and Frankie Valli throughout his career. His estimated net worth is approximately $17 million.

Quick Bio

Who is Richie Palmer?

Richie Palmer is an American restaurateur and actor who built one of Los Angeles’ most celebrity-connected pizza chains, Mulberry Street Pizzeria, from a single Beverly Hills storefront in 1991 into a five-location operation spanning Southern California and Las Vegas. His name entered mainstream public awareness through his marriage to actress Raquel Welch, the international sex symbol and Golden Globe-winning actress who was one of Hollywood’s most recognisable faces from the 1960s onward.

Palmer’s story is one of genuine entrepreneurial grit: a Bronx kid who started working in kitchens at 14, built his first pizzeria in New York in 1987, and relocated to Beverly Hills to open a restaurant that became a fixture of the Hollywood celebrity circuit. Frankie Valli, Frank Sinatra, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, and Zac Efron number among the customers who have frequented his establishments over the decades. Other profiles of entrepreneurs connected to the entertainment world appear regularly across xxbrits.uk’s latest coverage.

Palmer has also maintained a peripheral acting career, with screen credits that include the 2000 Eddie Murphy comedy Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, the 2001 film Zigs, the 1999 thriller Malevolence, and a voice role in the 2023 Disney Plus series Echo. His dual identity as a restaurateur and a recognisable face in Hollywood social circles distinguishes him from both pure entertainment industry figures and conventional business owners.

Early Life and Background

Childhood and Family

Richie Palmer grew up in the Bronx, New York, describing himself in his own words as “a poor skinny white kid in the 1960s,” raised in a working-class household where his mother’s cooking became the foundational influence on his career.

His mother was, by his own account, an extraordinary home cook who took an active interest in passing her skills to her son. By the age of ten, Palmer had learned to make mashed potatoes, meatballs, steak omelets, and marinara sauce under her instruction. The marinara recipe she taught him remains the base sauce used at Mulberry Street Pizzeria to this day, cooked for six hours per batch at every location. His father and any siblings have not been publicly identified.

The family lived in and around the Bronx, with Palmer referencing their home in Mahopac, a town in Putnam County north of New York City off the Taconic Parkway, as the area where he took his first job. The Bronx upbringing gave him direct exposure to the authentic New York-style thin crust pizza that would later define his restaurant brand, a style he has described as built entirely on the balance between dough, sauce, and cheese.

Education

No formal educational qualifications for Richie Palmer have been publicly confirmed. His career trajectory is built entirely on practical vocational experience beginning at age 14 rather than academic credentials.

Palmer has spoken in multiple interviews about learning the restaurant trade on the job, starting at the steakhouse in Mahopac and working his way through kitchens by doing whatever was needed. His culinary philosophy, focused on consistency, simplicity, and refusing to compromise on ingredient quality, reflects a trade education earned through decades of hands-on work rather than formal training.

Career Journey

Before Fame: Kitchens and Clubs in New York

At 14, Richie Palmer took his first job as a cook at a steakhouse near his family home in Mahopac, New York, the starting point of a kitchen career that would eventually take him from the Bronx to Beverly Hills.

After years in New York kitchens, Palmer moved into running a club alongside his restaurant ambitions. He has described looking out the window of a nearby coffee shop he frequented and fixating on a vacant, boarded-up store across the street with an old coal-burning oven inside. That space became his first pizzeria. The drive to own his own restaurant, planted by his mother’s cooking and years in other people’s kitchens, had been building throughout his early adult life.

Modern Pizzeria, New York: 1987

In 1987, Richie Palmer opened Modern Pizzeria in New York, his first solo restaurant, built on his mother’s marinara recipe and the Bronx thin-crust pizza style he had grown up eating and perfecting.

Modern Pizzeria used a brick oven converted to gas, a setup Palmer would later replicate in California using Blodgett deck ovens with stones at every Mulberry Street location for consistency. The New York operation proved that his product worked commercially. He also owned a club at this point, and by his own account business was good. But New York winters wore on him, and a visit to a friend’s business in Beverly Hills changed his direction entirely.

Mulberry Street Pizzeria Beverly Hills: 1991

In 1991, Richie Palmer sold his New York businesses and relocated to Los Angeles, opening Mulberry Street Pizzeria on North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills in partnership with actress Cathy Moriarty, who was his girlfriend and business partner at the time.

The name Mulberry Street came from the famous New York street in Manhattan’s Little Italy, a historic hub of restaurants and Italian-American food culture. Palmer had considered naming the pizzeria after himself but settled on the Mulberry Street name as a statement of New York identity and authenticity on the West Coast.

The Beverly Hills location attracted a celebrity clientele almost immediately. Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, and Frankie Valli became regulars. Frank Sinatra was among the early delivery customers. In later years Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, and Zac Efron added to the roster. Palmer expanded the chain to Sherman Oaks, Encino, and Thousand Oaks, all corporately owned and operated, before eventually launching a fifth location at Resorts World Las Vegas in 2021.

Las Vegas Expansion: Resorts World, 2021

In 2021, Mulberry Street Pizzeria opened its Las Vegas outpost at Resorts World on the Strip, marking the brand’s first out-of-state expansion through a licensing model Palmer has described as preferable to franchising.

Palmer has spoken candidly about his aversion to franchising, describing it as “too detailed and hard” and noting that most franchises fail due to mismanagement by people more interested in profit than product quality. The Las Vegas location instead operates under a licensing arrangement, with Palmer’s own trained employees overseeing the operation to maintain the brand’s consistency standards. The same Blodgett deck ovens, the same six-hour marinara, the same Bronx-style thin crust are used across all locations.

Many of the Las Vegas recipes, including the sauce, ziti, and salad dressings, come from the Tripicchio family’s grandmother’s kitchen, a connection to his first wife’s family that runs through the brand’s history. Stories like Palmer’s appear regularly across xxbrits voices.

Acting Career

Richie Palmer has maintained a parallel acting career since the late 1990s, with minor and supporting roles in several film and television productions, the most prominent of which is Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), in which he appeared as a cab driver alongside Eddie Murphy.

His confirmed screen credits include the 1999 thriller Malevolence (Morgan); a croupier role in Zigs (2001); the cab driver appearance in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000); and a voice role as Bill Fisk in the Disney Plus Marvel series Echo, credited as Richie Palmer Sr. (2023 to 2024). The acting work runs as a secondary strand alongside his primary identity as a restaurateur, reflecting the overlap between his social world in Hollywood and the entertainment industry.

Net Worth and Income Streams

Richie Palmer’s estimated net worth is approximately $17 million as of 2026, derived primarily from his Mulberry Street Pizzeria chain across five locations in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

All figures are estimates based on publicly available sources. Palmer does not publicly disclose business revenue or personal financial details.

Physical Appearance

Height and Body Stats

No verified physical measurements for Richie Palmer have been published in credible sources. Palmer has described working out daily, including an hour of weight training and an hour of boxing at Wild Card Boxing Club with trainer Frankie Duarte.

Palmer trains two hours daily and has cited his boxing sessions with trainer Frankie Duarte at Wild Card Boxing Club as the reason he eats without dietary restriction.

Personal Life

Relationships

Richie Palmer was first married to Donna Tripicchio, with whom he had his son Richie Palmer Jr. in 1989. He was subsequently engaged to actress Cathy Moriarty, broke off that engagement in October 1997 after meeting Raquel Welch, married Welch in July 1999, and divorced in 2004.

Palmer met Welch in October 1997 at Ago, the West Hollywood restaurant owned by Robert De Niro. He broke off his engagement to Cathy Moriarty to pursue her. He was 14 years younger than Welch, who was born on September 5, 1940. Their wedding took place on July 17, 1999, in a small private ceremony at Welch’s Beverly Hills home, attended by Welch’s adult children Damon and Tahnee Welch and Palmer’s son, then ten years old.

Their representative announced the separation in August 2003, describing it as mutual and amicable. After the split, Palmer was linked with Pia Artesona and subsequently had a relationship with English model Leilani Dowding from 2007 to 2009, which Dowding revealed on Tough Love Miami in 2011 to have been a secret marriage she ended. As of February 2010, Palmer was reported to be dating Priscilla Presley. Profiles of others connected to Hollywood celebrity relationships, including Coleman Laffoon and Erin Barry, appear across the site.

Family

Richie Palmer has one confirmed child: his son Richie Palmer Jr., born in 1989 from his first marriage to Donna Tripicchio, who was ten years old at the time of his father’s 1999 wedding to Raquel Welch.

Donna Tripicchio’s family culinary heritage runs through the Mulberry Street Pizzeria brand, with several Las Vegas location recipes credited to the Tripicchio grandmother’s kitchen. Richie Palmer Jr. maintains a private profile and has not entered public life.

Raquel Welch, Palmer’s most publicly prominent former wife, died on February 15, 2023, from a brief illness at the age of 82. She was not married at the time of her death. Palmer has not made public statements about her passing.

Achievements and Milestones

Richie Palmer’s defining achievement is building Mulberry Street Pizzeria from a single Beverly Hills location in 1991 into a five-unit chain that has sustained celebrity patronage and critical respect for more than three decades.

• Opened Modern Pizzeria in New York in 1987, his first solo restaurant, built on his mother’s marinara recipe.
• Founded Mulberry Street Pizzeria in Beverly Hills in 1991, introducing authentic Bronx-style thin crust pizza to the West Coast.
• Built the Beverly Hills location into a celebrity destination for Frank Sinatra, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, Frankie Valli, Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, and Zac Efron.
• Expanded to four Los Angeles locations: Beverly Hills, Sherman Oaks, Encino, and Thousand Oaks.
• Celebrated the pizzeria’s 20th anniversary in October 2012 with a public 20-cent slice event.
• Launched a fifth location at Resorts World Las Vegas in 2021, the brand’s first out-of-state expansion.
• Appeared in Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) alongside Eddie Murphy, and voiced a character in Disney Plus’s Echo (2023).
• Married actress Raquel Welch in July 1999, one of Hollywood’s most iconic international stars.

Interesting Facts About Richie Palmer

Richie Palmer has delivered pizza to Frank Sinatra, and his Beverly Hills restaurant has served as a de facto canteen for a generation of Hollywood stars across more than three decades of operation.

• Palmer grew up describing himself as “a poor skinny white kid in the Bronx in the 1960s,” making his eventual status as Beverly Hills restaurateur to the stars a dramatic social trajectory.
• His six-hour marinara sauce, made fresh in-house at every location every day, comes directly from the recipe his mother taught him before he was ten years old.
• He was engaged to Raging Bull actress Cathy Moriarty, his Mulberry Street business partner, before breaking off the engagement to pursue Raquel Welch after meeting her in October 1997.
• Palmer described the main perk of marrying Raquel Welch to the New York Post as: “I get great seats at the fights. You go wherever you want to go.” The quote became one of the most cited lines about their marriage.
• He trains two hours daily: one hour lifting weights and one hour boxing at Wild Card Boxing Club with trainer Frankie Duarte, a routine he has cited as the reason he can eat whatever he wants.
• He openly refuses to eat at Pizza Hut, Domino’s, or Papa John’s, a position he has stated in published interviews as both a personal and professional principle.
• His ex-wife Raquel Welch died on February 15, 2023, of a brief illness at the age of 82. She was not married at the time of her death.