Maman

What Maman does

Maman is a French-inspired café, bakery, restaurant, and event space operator founded in October 2014 in Soho, New York by Benjamin Sormonte and Elisa Marshall. The company operates 50+ company-run cafés across the United States (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Texas) and Canada (Toronto, Montréal), spanning full-service dining rooms, the {petite} maman grab-and-go sub-brand, the Papa Poule rotisserie sister concept, and the Marché Maman collective retail shop. Core menu offerings include coffee, espresso (notably a viral Salted Tahini Latte), pastries, salads, sandwiches, and the Oprah's Favorite Things-featured nutty chocolate chip cookie, complemented by full catering tiers (pickup, drop-off, full-service), private event hosting with $2,000-$3,000 minimums, corporate gifting programs for 5-500 recipients, and a Shopify-powered e-commerce storefront selling cookies, gift boxes, branded merch, and the 2021 Maman: The Cookbook (Clarkson Potter / Penguin Random House).

The technology stack is conventional SaaS commerce rather than proprietary infrastructure: a Shopify-powered retail site (shop.mamannyc.com), a custom branded ordering portal (order.mamannyc.com), a Prismic CMS-backed marketing site, a native iOS/Android loyalty app with scan-to-pay (Apple Pay, Google Pay) and a points-based rewards program, and Tripleseat for event bookings, ezCater for last-minute catering, Storecard.com for gift card balances, and Harri for applicant tracking. In May 2026 Maman received its first disclosed institutional capital, a round led by Kline Hill Partners with Norwest and TriSpan LLP, signaling a shift from founder-funded expansion to growth-equity-accelerated scaling.

Revenue is generated through a diversified mix: walk-in café retail (the majority), three-tier catering with a $150 minimum and 72-hour lead time, private event bookings with $2K-$3K minimums, B2B corporate gifting, Shopify e-commerce (cookies, gifts, merch, gift cards) with free shipping over $85, cookbook sales, and ancillary licensing. Customer concentration is low at the consumer level (distributed across tens of thousands of daily in-café transactions in major U.S. and Canadian metros), with modest B2B exposure through catering, corporate gifting, and high-ticket private events.

Name

Maman

Legal name

maman

Website

https://mamannyc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Maman is a French-inspired café, bakery, and event space operator running 50+ locations across the U.S. and Canada, serving coffee, pastries, salads, and private events to urban consumers and corporate clients, with catering, corporate gifting, and Shopify e-commerce revenue streams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Specialty Café and Bakery Chain

NAICS

Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars (722515), Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Limited-Service Restaurants (722513)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Cafe-Bakeries (Bakery + Coffee/Foodservice) (THAFAFAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Cafe-Bakeries (Coffee + Pastry Focus) (THAFADAG), Restaurant Meal & Prepared Food Delivery (CRAFAFAB)

Keywords

• Specialty coffee shops
• Artisan bakery chain
• Café catering services
• Private event venues
• Corporate gift boxes

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Café retail sales (food, beverage, pastries): Walk-in, in-café sales of coffee, espresso, baked goods, breakfast, lunch, salads, sandwiches, and seasonal specials across 50+ company-operated cafés in the US and Canada. Drives the majority of revenue via high-frequency, transaction-based purchases.
2. Catering services: Three tiers — pickup, drop-off delivery, and full-service catering — for office lunches, meetings, and events. Orders require 72 business hours notice and a $150 online minimum, with full-service as a higher-margin upsell including on-site staffing and styling.
3. Private events hosting: Rental of café spaces for private events with minimum spends starting at $2,000 in FL and $3,000 in NY & DMV; pricing scales with day, time, and location, providing premium per-event revenue.
4. Online retail (cookies, gift boxes, merchandise): E-commerce sales via shop.mamannyc.com (Shopify), including signature nutty chocolate chip cookies, cookie gift boxes, cookbooks, merch, and seasonal cookie collections; ships within contiguous US with free shipping over $85 (up to $20).
5. Corporate gifting & bulk orders: Custom-curated cookie tins, branded gift boxes, and individually wrapped cookies with company-logo stickers for 5 to 500 recipients, handled via [email protected].
6. Cookbook & merchandise royalties/sales: Sales of 'Maman: The Cookbook' (Clarkson Potter / Penguin Random House, 2021) via major bookstores and online, plus branded merchandise.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Core offering

Maman operates a French-inspired café and bakery chain with 50+ company-operated locations across the U.S. (NY, NJ, CT, PA, MD, DC, VA, FL, NC, TX) and Canada (Toronto, Montréal). Core menu items include specialty coffee, espresso drinks, pastries, salads, sandwiches, and signature items such as the nutty chocolate chip cookie (featured on Oprah's Favorite Things 2017) and the viral Salted Tahini Latte. Beyond cafés, Maman sells pickup, drop-off, and full-service catering; rents café space for private events; ships cookies, gift boxes, merchandise, and a published cookbook via a Shopify-powered e-commerce shop; and operates a mobile app with an integrated loyalty program.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Papa Poule: French-style rotisserie restaurant launched in February 2015 as Maman's "brother brand," originally across the street from the Soho café and reintroduced at the Meatpacking location in 2022.
• Marché Maman

Products and services

• Maman Café & Bakery Flagship French-inspired café and bakery concept serving seasonal salads, quiches, sandwiches, pastries, coffee, and the Oprah-featured nutty chocolate chip cookie, with indoor dining at most U.S. and Canadian locations. Includes the full brunch, lunch, and cocktail bar program at flagship locations such as Soho, Tribeca, Meatpacking, and King.
• Papa Poule Sister brand to Maman offering French-style rotisserie fare including bone broth, roasted chicken, and pickled vegetables; originally opened across from the Soho café and later reinstated as a featured menu at the Meatpacking location.
• Marché Maman Collective shop launched July 2017 selling curated goods from local businesses and vendors on a rotation, extending the brand beyond food and beverage into lifestyle retail.
• Maman App & Loyalty Program Native iOS/Android app for pickup and delivery ordering with a points-based loyalty program (1 point per $1 spent); rewards include a free cookie on first order of $20+, free birthday cookie, $5 off at 100 points, app-exclusive items, and scan-to-pay with Apple Pay / Google Pay.
• Maman Catering Catering service spanning pick-up, drop-off delivery, and full-service formats for offices, homes, and celebrations; minimum $150 online order spend, 72-hour notice required, operated Monday–Sunday 9am–5pm, with last-minute orders under 48 hours fulfilled via ezCater.
• Maman Private Events Private event hosting in café locations featuring antique provincial décor and custom floral installations; minimum spend starts at $2,000 in FL and $3,000 in NY & DMV, with a 2-week minimum booking notice. Inquiries routed through the embedded Tripleseat event widget.
• Maman Corporate Gifting Build-your-own and curated cookie gift boxes and branded merchandise with customizable logo stickers for employee and client gifting programs; supports both small (5+) and large (500+) recipient lists, handled via [email protected].
• Maman Online Retail Shop E-commerce storefront (powered by Shopify) selling perishable cookies, cookie gift boxes, branded merch, digital and physical gift cards, and the Maman cookbook; ships Monday–Thursday within the contiguous U.S. with free shipping over $85 (up to $20) and an in-store pickup option.
• Maman: The Cookbook Published cookbook by founders Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte with Lauren Salkeld, released September 2021 by Clarkson Potter (Penguin Random House); contains 100+ family recipes and Maman classics.
• Maman Apéro Happy Hour Program Late-afternoon beverage program featuring $8 signature cocktails, $8/$30 house wines, and $7 seasonal beers; offered weekdays 3–6pm and weekends 4–6pm at selected NY, DMV, and Florida cafés.

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

Feature4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Gregorys Coffee: NYC-founded specialty coffee and café chain with multiple Manhattan and tri-state locations. Comparable in café format, urban footprint, mobile-ordering/loyalty infrastructure, and metropolitan expansion strategy.
• Café Kitsuné: Paris-based French café and lifestyle brand with NYC, Tokyo, and other global locations. Closely matches Maman's French café heritage, design-driven positioning, and apparel/lifestyle extension into retail.
• Le Pain Quotidien: Belgian-origin bakery-café chain serving all-day breakfast, salads, sandwiches, and pastries in communal-table settings. Most directly comparable to Maman in concept (European bakery-café, full-service dining, baked-goods focus, urban locations).
• La Colombe Coffee Roasters: Specialty coffee roaster and café chain with a national U.S. footprint of company-owned and partner cafés. Comparable to Maman in café operations, beverage-led menu, and physical-retail expansion strategy.
• Stumptown Coffee Roasters: Specialty coffee roaster with company-owned cafés in NYC, Portland, and other major markets. Comparable in café retail operations, premium beverage focus, and packaged-goods direct-to-consumer extension.
• Sant Ambroeus: Italian-style café, pasticceria, and restaurant with multiple NYC and East Coast locations. Directly comparable to Maman in European café heritage, premium pricing, design-led interiors, and full-service dining-plus-pastry concept.
• Blue Bottle Coffee: Specialty coffee chain operating cafés across the U.S. and internationally, with a design-forward, premium-positioning model. Comparable in café format, urban real-estate selection, and direct-to-consumer packaged goods (coffee, cookies) extension.
• Bluestone Lane: Australian-inspired specialty coffee and café chain with strong NYC presence and expansion across major U.S. cities. Comparable to Maman in café format, premium positioning, urban footprint, and lifestyle-brand ethos.
• Joe & The Juice: Danish coffee and juice bar chain with rapid global expansion and a similar grab-and-go service model. Comparable in café format, urban transit-adjacent real estate, and lifestyle-brand positioning targeting younger urban consumers.
• The Butcher's Daughter: Plant-focused café, juice bar, and restaurant with NYC and LA locations. Comparable in café-plus-healthy-savory concept, Instagram-driven brand identity, and lifestyle extension into retail and packaged goods.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/_mamannyc_
• Xx.com/_mamannyc_

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Maman