Constantly innovating and raising the bar, our family business understands endless ambition first-hand. That's why we're dedicated to fueling your hustle in whatever way that best propels you forward.
Raised in the food and beverage industry, our founder and CEO Gregory Zamfotis was immersed in his father's businesses at a very young age. He had the unique opportunity to be involved in every aspect of the operations in his father's business, planting the seeds for what would someday become his passion: working in food service. Read More Given the incredible experiences Greg had while working alongside his father, his dream soon became to create something of his own.
The invaluable lessons Greg learned while watching his father run his businesses became the pillars upon which Gregorys Coffee was built, and this family legacy of hard-working innovators continues to fuel the brand today. As the company has continued to grow, and more and more amazing people join the team, we continually defy the trend of sacrificing quality for convenience. Our Gregorys family includes the world's premier importers and exporters of coffee who give us access to the best and most interesting coffees available.
We work tirelessly to select our coffees and develop roast profiles that bring the absolute best out of each bean. I felt a really big void in this coffee space in New York, that there were not enough people focused on getting people out the door in a really quick fashion.
As a New Yorker and caring about what New Yorkers care about, they care about quality, consistency, really great customer service, not paying too much, and honestly, efficiency.
I never wanted to be perceived as not giving you something. Am I the most proud of my large mocha? Probably not. I think in the beginning people saw us as a Starbucks clone, shops in a busy part of the city, nothing to write home about. You stay really involved in the retail aspect of your cafes. How do you maintain quality while growing so rapidly?
I do mystery shop reports and I have a point checklist. A lot of the metrics are timed. Especially at volume, it makes it very difficult to be good at it. In a week I try and hit all of them, but it depends on the week. Last Thursday I did 23, steps. I started in Jersey City and I had to be there at am—I also do all the construction stuff, the leasing, the legal, and I work hand-in-hand with the bookkeeper and accountant and all the real estate stuff.
I really really love that more than anything else, being on my feet, seeing my team members. Tell us about your newest shop on Broadway—you said this is going to be a special store where you experiment? Our newest shop features a blends menu, single-origin espressos, single-origin espresso-based drinks, and signature drinks based on our rotating list of coffees. We want it to be a bit more fluid and not as fixed.
We have a bunch more under construction. Digital payments, order ahead, third-party delivery, all these technological advancements, bets that we placed a long time ago, helped us flatten our own curve, helped us get people into our stores and make it as easy as possible for them.
Do you think the shift in how consumers are eating out will continue even after the pandemic ends? I think this is getting people out of their previous comfort zones out of necessity. You may be getting many folks who resisted the platforms before, to jump in. Once you get people into your ecosystem, and they really understand the benefits, and really can immerse themselves in our culture, our menu, and the experiences that we are trying to provide, I think that adds many more touch points through which you get to interact with your guests digitally as well as in your stores.
At a time when fast casual is struggling, you are opening in locations, particularly in more residential areas as opposed to corporate centers. Are you targeting people working at home? That was our bread and butter for a long time. But in an effort to diversify and try to interact with people in all different aspects of the life cycle, whether they are at work or at home or at the gym or wherever, I think we are starting to explore different real estate strategies — Hoboken being one — and new locations that we are working on will reach out to people similarly at different sorts of touch points.
You recently launched a new vegan item. How are you marketing this expansion to appeal to a wider audience? We have our own commissary, bakery, and roasting facility, so we have a lot of flexibility to do unique and one-off sort of products. For forever we were just doing pastries, grab-and-go items, and our coffee and drink menu. A year and a half ago, we formally launched a hot food menu, breakfast sandwiches, avocado toast, things like that.
It was doing pretty well for us and we were excited to explore more. Part of what happened during COVID, especially early on, was that so few places were reopened, so we found that when we reopened cafes in the early May, we were one of the few food or beverage companies reopened in these markets.
0コメント