Maman Started As A Small SoHo Café In NYC, Expanded, And Is Turning Into A Lifestyle Brand

When Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte opened Maman (French for mother), a French-style café in 2014, in the fashionable SoHo neighborhood of New York City, their goals were rather modest. They wanted to create a neighborhood café that was warm and not overly trendy.

To open it, they scraped together funds with their own savings and relied on friends and family for the remainder. Marshall described them as “scrappy,” since they repurposed items to keep the costs down, and their family helped by painting the café’s walls and stained floors.

At the outset, Maman attracted many local residents, people who worked in the area, with plenty of tourists. “We were fortunate to open in SoHo where we have a very diverse and dense clientele,” Marshall explained.

It serves fast-casual style with no waiter service, except for brunch hours on weekends from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., when people prefer to linger. Hence, much of its business is take-out, and it tends to attract a clientele of women aged 20 to 45.

Marshall, who is 38-years-old, explained that both founders had full-time jobs when Maman first opened. Marshall was a wedding planner and Canadian, and Sormonte, who is 41-years-old, was a corporate lawyer, who is French. They opened it as a “creative outlet and passion,” she said.

Then Florence Fabricant, a noted New York Times
NYT
food writer, wrote a feature about it, as did Grub Street, and lines started to form. They self-funded their second Maman in Toronto, based on reinvesting all of their profits into the business.

Its cookies are also shipped nationwide on its website helped in 2017 by its being named one of Oprah’s Favorite Things, recognizing its Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookie. “That put us on the map,” Marshall said. Tourists started flocking to SoHo to taste those chocolate-chip cookies.

And since Marshall had been a wedding planner, its décor appealed to Instagram users and taking photos in the shops, and that contributed to boosting business.

Sormonte described it as more of an international café than a French café but acknowledged that it used French-techniques in its cooking of croissants, and the chefs are French including its pastry chef. Its Oreo cookie, for example, elevates that old-fashioned cookie to a new level.

Nearly a decade later, and that little SoHo café Maman has transformed into a café powerhouse, and is gradually turning into a lifestyle brand.

Private Equity Investment Helps Expansion

Maman has expanded into 30 cafes, with 28 in the U.S. and 2 in Canada, in Toronto and Montreal. Every one of them is company-owned, but much of the growth has been capitalized by TriSpan, a London and New York-based private equity firm that came aboard in 2020. The two founders own 50%, and TriSpan the remainder.

According to TriSpan’s website, it has invested in several restaurant chains including Rosa Mexicano, Thunderbird Fried Chicken, and Shell Shack.

“We are equal partners,” explained Sormonte, who has no illusions about private equity ownership. “They invested capital to expand. What I like about them is they trigger economies of scale,” he said. They also brought financial discipline to the chain, he added.

And if they decide to cash out in three to five years, Sormonte won’t be surprised. “The only way they can exist is to provide return for investors,” he added.

So far in 2023 Maman has opened four new cafes: three in the Washington, D.C. area and one in Greenwich, Ct. Later in 2023, it’s expanding into Florida, which Marshall says is a good fit for them. “We felt as if there was nothing comparable to what Maman offers in that market,” she said.

Next Up: Florida

Its Florida expansion begins in Miami, in the Wynwood neighborhood, and then extends to West Palm Beach in 2024, and is exploring Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale next.

Every neighborhood where Maman’s is located is different, the owners noted. So the SoHo location is frequented mostly by tourists, but the Meatpacking one is in a more residential neighborhood and attracts more locals. Its revenue consists of 50% in-house dining and 50% takeout.

It’s also turned into a lifestyle brand by selling cookbooks, small kitchen and home goods items such as aprons and kitchen accessories, and partnering with jewelry brands and children’s wear. For example, it recently formed a partnership with Lalo, a baby and toddler brand, to create bibs and high chairs.

The lifestyle branding happened almost organically. They created some Maman aprons and hats, and in no time at all, sales staff told the owners the inventory was sold out. “Now we want to build the brand beyond brick and mortar,” she stated.

Maman has also generated revenue by offering special events and catering. Yet it’s still predominantly a restaurant company. Its revenue stems 75% from restaurants, 20% from events and catering, and 5% from retail, though that number is expected to grow.

In terms of responsibilities, Sormonte oversees the business elements while Marshall serves as creative director and event planner.

Consumer response on Yelp indicates that Maman hasn’t lost its original feel. Olivia from New York said it’s “the perfect coffee shop in SoHo if you’re looking for where cute and aesthetic meet. Like all Maman stores, it’s decorated with blue and white porcelain and lots of plants.”

And Samantha from New York praised the chocolate chip cookie, which she found, crispy on the outside with a gooey and chewy inside, a bit too sweet for her, but went well with the coffee.

Asked the key to its continued success, Sormonte replied “It’s all about the people. We can only grow with people who understand the brand.” And Marshall, clearly on the same wavelength as her partner, said, its growth depends on “emphasizing its company culture, and making it a great workplace.”