Nation's Restaurant News - Sbe’s C3 — Creating Culinary Communities, spearheaded by operator Sam Nazarian — and recently formed hospitality group Craveworthy Brands, from former Jimmy John’s CEO Gregg Majewski, announced Tuesday that they are partnering together for the franchising and expansion of Sbe’s Mediterranean concept, Soom Soom.
In an exclusive interview with NRN, Jay Patel, chief business officer of Sbe and Gregg Majewski discussed the two companies’ strategy for growing the Israeli-Mediterranean concept from six locations to more than 80 stores by 2027, with an emphasis on physical stores, even though C3 is known for its arsenal of virtual brands. Through the exclusive franchising initiative with Craveworthy, they predicted that over time, Soom Soom would be bigger than Cava in the Mediterranean fast-casual space.
“When we partnered with the founders [of Soom Soom] our goal was always to expand it—we we wanted to put it in our food halls, and then franchise it,” Patel said. “Looking at the franchising space, there really isn’t a leader in Mediterranean from a national operations perspective. So we interviewed a bunch of people and… decided that the best match was Gregg Majewski and Craveworthy…. For us, it was all about ‘how can we make this business efficient and franchisable across the country?’”
Soom Soom is a Los Angeles-based brand with six brick and mortar locations and a simple, pita-focused menu with shawarma, kebobs, and hummus as popular options. Although limited-service Mediterranean concepts are a hot market right now, Majewski said that what makes Soom Soom unique is the founder Zhi Elgar’s immigrant story as he utilized his authentic Israeli food to launch his business and achieve the American dream.