JACKS WIFE FREDA

What JACKS WIFE FREDA does

Jack's Wife Freda is a privately held, multi-location full-service restaurant group operating five locations across New York City — SoHo, West Village, Chelsea, Union Square, and Williamsburg — under JWF Management LLC. Founded in 2011 by Dean and Maya Jankelowitz, the brand positions itself around South African, Israeli, and New York Jewish culinary traditions, branded in media coverage as "South African Israeli Jewish Grandmother Cuisine." The business offers all-day dining (breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner) seven days a week, with menu price points ranging from approximately $9 sides to $48 entrees and $17 cocktails.

The operating model combines direct dine-in service with off-premise revenue streams: catering and gift cards processed through Toast POS, pickup and delivery via Grubhub and Uber Eats, branded merchandise and cookbook sales through Shopify, and wine retail through Bottlerocket. Technology infrastructure is built on commodity SaaS — Toast for operations, Shopify for e-commerce, WordPress for content, and Resy for reservations — with no proprietary platform or AI capability disclosed. The brand has received sustained editorial coverage in Vogue, The New York Times, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Oprah, and Eater, and was featured in the 2026 Devil Wears Prada 2 sequel. The business is wholly owned and operated by the founders with no external investment or parent company identified.

Name

JACKS WIFE FREDA

Legal name

JWF Management LLC

Website

https://jackswifefreda.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Jack's Wife Freda is a privately held NYC restaurant group operating five full-service locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, serving all-day dining with South African-Israeli-Jewish cuisine, complemented by catering, merchandise, and cookbook sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Casual Dining Restaurants

NAICS

Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Special Food Services (7223)

SIC

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

akta.pro primary industry

All-Day Dining Restaurants (THAFACAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Family-Style Restaurants (THAFACAC)

Keywords

• Casual dining restaurants
• Brunch restaurant services
• Event catering services
• Mediterranean fusion cuisine
• Restaurant merchandise sales

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Restaurant Dining: Full-service restaurant dining across 5 NYC locations serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner with all-day menu availability. Revenue generated from food and beverage sales including signature dishes, cocktails, and wine.
2. Catering Services: Catering orders for pickup or delivery processed through Toast platform for events and large parties.
3. Alcohol Sales: Wine, cocktails, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages sold at all locations. Features house-made wine labels (JWF Cuvée) and signature cocktails.
4. Merchandise & Licensed Products: Cookbook sales (Jack's Wife Freda: Cooking From New York's West Village) available in-store and through Amazon, McNally Jackson, and the Shopify store. Wine branded products available through Bottlerocket.
5. Gift Cards: E-gift cards and physical gift cards sold for use at any Jack's Wife Freda location, processed through Toast.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Jack's Wife Freda is a New York City-based multi-location restaurant group operating all-day dining (breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner) seven days a week, serving a distinctive South African–Israeli–Jewish "grandmother-style" comfort cuisine. Beyond its five dine-in locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the company extends its brand through catering and large-party services, pickup and delivery, e-gift cards, a published cookbook, a curated wine program, and a branded merchandise shop.

Product overview

Jack's Wife Freda is a multi-location NYC restaurant chain offering all-day dining services. The core offering consists of five restaurant locations serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner with a menu featuring South African, Israeli, and New York Jewish cuisine. The business extends beyond dining through complementary services including catering for events, large party reservations for groups of 10+, e-gift cards, merchandise shop, cookbook sales, and third-party delivery/pickup integration. The product ecosystem centers on the in-restaurant dining experience supplemented by e-commerce and catering modules.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• All-Day Restaurant Dining In-restaurant full-service casual dining featuring a South African–Israeli–Jewish comfort menu across breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner, served seven days a week at five NYC locations for individual diners and walk-in guests.
• Catering Services

Quantifiable outcome

• Featured in Vogue SoHo restaurant guide December 2025
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, secondary and minor.

• Toast, Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationThird-party platform for online ordering, catering orders, and gift certificate purchases. Processes all food orders for pickup and delivery, catering services, and gift card transactions. Privacy Policy and Terms of Use governed by Toast.
• GrubhubcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThird-party delivery platform for pickup and delivery services at all 5 NYC locations. Links provided on website for each location.
• Uber EatscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThird-party delivery platform for food delivery services. Referenced in Privacy Policy as a platform for online ordering.
• ShopifysecondaryTechnology or IntegrationThird-party platform hosting the Shop Merchandise section of the website for purchasing branded merchandise including cookbooks.
• Bottlerocket Wine & SpiritsecondaryChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorThird-party platform hosting the wine shop for purchasing JWF branded wines and spirits online.
• ResycoreTechnology or IntegrationRestaurant reservation platform used across all 5 NYC locations for managing bookings. Links provided for each location.
• House of Waris (HOW)secondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative tea partnership producing HOW X Freda's Blood Orange Rooibos Blend featured on the menu. Also collaborated on Digital Dinner Club event.
• Penguin Random HousesecondaryChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPublisher of 'Jack's Wife Freda: Cooking From New York's West Village' cookbook. Also available through Amazon and McNally Jackson.
• Loeffler RandallminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFashion brand collaboration featuring owner Maya Jankelowitz in Comfort Food story and LR X JWF apron partnership.
• Lee MathewsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerAustralian fashion brand featuring Maya Jankelowitz in New York City travel story December 2024.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Jacob's Pickles: Upper West Side all-day comfort food restaurant with strong brunch daypart and neighborhood institution status. Comparable neighborhood-anchored NYC concept with strong brunch following and all-day menu.
• ABC Kitchen: Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Flatiron flagship farm-to-table restaurant with brunch and dinner service. Comparable premium all-day NYC concept with strong press reputation and neighborhood anchor positioning.
• Sarabeth's: Multi-location NYC brunch and all-day dining institution known for jams, baked goods, and signature brunch dishes. Comparable daypart strategy, multi-unit NYC footprint, and cookbook/retail extensions.
• Daily Provisions: Union Square Hospitality Group's all-day neighborhood cafe concept offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Comparable all-day NYC concept from a prominent restaurateur group with adjacent Union Square location.
• Sadelle's: Major Food Group's iconic SoHo/Brunch institution offering all-day dining with strong brand recognition and bakery/cultural cachet. Highly comparable to JWF in NYC positioning, daypart coverage, and design-forward aesthetic.
• Sugarfish by sushi nozawa: Multi-unit NYC-area sushi chain with cult following and strong brand recognition through consistent menu philosophy. Comparable multi-unit NYC casual premium concept with cult brand status.
• Balthazar Restaurant: Keith McNally's SoHo brasserie offering all-day French bistro service with strong media presence. Comparable NYC all-day dining institution with similar brand cachet and SoHo origins.
• Carmine's (NYC): Family-style Italian restaurant with multiple NYC locations known for group dining and welcoming atmosphere. Comparable family-style, group-friendly NYC dining model with neighborhood locations.
• The Smith: Multi-location NYC American brasserie serving breakfast through dinner across several Manhattan neighborhoods. Closest comparable in terms of multi-unit, all-day, neighborhood-anchor strategy and reservation/delivery infrastructure.

Broad incumbents

• Sweetgreen: National fast-casual restaurant chain with strong brand, multi-unit footprint, digital ordering infrastructure (Toast-style stack), and cookbook/merchandise extensions. Broader comparable in scaling a casual dining concept nationally with technology-enabled operations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/watch?v=L6J5CPko2JI
• Instagraminstagram.com/jackswifefreda
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/jacks-wife-freda

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 JACKS WIFE FREDA