When the pandemic was its apex in 2020, the French bakery/café Maison Kayser shuttered all of its 16 locations in New York City. Another French bakery/cafe Le Pain Quotidien closed five of its New York City outposts in 2020, before it was acquired for $3 million by Aurify, a New York investor that owns several fast-casual brands.
But those setbacks at French cafes have not deterred Marvelous by Fred, a global brand with 45 locations, from opening two outposts in New York City. Its French name is Aux Merveilleux de Fred, but Americans have an easier time remembering Marvelous by Fred.
A Parisian style bakery is appealing to many New Yorkers and showing growth potential despite several French bakeries having faced slowdowns.
Of its 45 locations, 28 are in France with 15 in Paris, six in Belgium, three in London, two in Geneva, one in Toronto, with the two in New York City. It’s an expanding chain evidenced by its debuting seven new outlets in 2020 and six in 2021.
Did Marvelous by Fred learn anything from the closing of Maison Kayser? Antoine Jacques, its president for Marvelous by Fred NYC, who co-owns the two New York outlets with Marvelous by Fred founder Frederic Vaucamps, says Maison Kayser closed “as a result of the difficult time with Covid rather than lack of affinity. Le Pain Quotidian was an older brand that they were trying to rejuvenate.”
Marvelous by Fred specializes in producing four core products: meringue, croissants, brioche and waffles. Most French bakeries have expansive menus, but by specializing in these four it can prepare almost everything in-house daily.
Its namesake merveilleux combines meringue, whipped cream and chocolate. Jacques says the merveilleux are about 360 calories each and the mini-ones contain from 85 to 100 calories each
Keeping the menu streamlined “guarantees our focus and our ability to execute the quality we are looking for,” he says. “The moment you do more product, you need to train more staff and there’s more room for error. You sell less and freshness isn’t the same.”
It hasn’t even added a new flavor in ten years, he underscores. Keeping things simple helps with “training, inventory, and quality control.”
Hence, the secret of its success, explains Jacques, is “authenticity. We are not cheating. When you come in and buy something, it’s been made by the people who serve you and baked in the last two hours-max,” he notes.
In France, every one of its locations is franchised, but in other destinations, they’re company-owed. In France, each location is operated by a local partner who has trained for 10 months at Fred’s stores in France, explains Jacques. The local partner is then responsible for recipes, processes, equipment and production of pastries.
The partner has some latitude to develop menu add-ons and secondary items that fit Marvelous by Fred’s artisan identity, notes Jacques.
About half of its locations or 26 are take-out only, and the rest have seating. For example, its West Village location at lower 8th Avenue is take-out only, compact with 450 square feet and a basement, but sometimes so popular that a line of seven or eight people will queue up outside. It opened in 2015.
He also said the West Village reminded him of a Parisian neighborhood so he wanted to test the proof of concept there.
“We never closed the store during the pandemic. We became a staple in the neighborhood and that helped us form a connection with our neighbors,” he notes.
Its newest New York City outpost in Midtown Manhattan near Bryant Park at Sixth Avenue debuted in August 2021. It offers 10-person seating downstairs, where guests can also observe the open bakery concept. Its 50-person seating service upstairs is due to open end of the year.
The Midtown location also offers a host of expanded food options including hummus and sundried tomatoes brioches sandwich, prosciutto brioche sandwiches and turkey and Swiss sandwiches.
Despite the Midtown location being much larger, Jacques says it’s still “grab and go. You come in and there’s a long counter for customer service.”
But in New York City, “people want the experience more than the product. In Paris, we want the product, and they’ll struggle to wait 45 minutes to get the product from the right place,” Jacques says. Impatient New Yorkers don’t like long lines and often move on to another bakery rather than waiting.
But many Americans are gravitating to healthier foods, not high-calorie pastries. Jacques says that “Eating a croissant or brioche isn’t ruining a diet. Eating processed food” is what destroys diets.
But Marvelous by Fred has its eyes on American expansion. Jacques expects to open another four or five locations in Manhattan over several years and has earmarked various neighborhoods such as Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Flatiron, and Columbus Circle. And then he envisions gravitating to the 12 largest U.S. cities.
But the growth will be gradual, “like maybe two more stores or three in New York City in the next year. We’re not in a rush. We need to find the right people for the right cities,” he says, indicating they’d franchise outside of New York.
Moreover, they haven’t determined if the new outlets will be take-out only or sit-down. “That will be determined by how our new seated space in New York City performs,” he says.
Jacques calls the three keys to its future success as: 1) Ability to keep quality consistent, 2) Find the right demographics in each of the cities since “We’re a specialized brand.” 3) Getting out of Covid as quickly as possible.