How the Rapidly-Growing Health Food Concept Toastique Created a Winning Franchise Formula: Gourmet Fast Food

When 29-year-old Brianna Keefe, Founder and CEO of the gourmet toast franchise Toastique, first started the concept in 2018, her primary goals were simple: do something she could be passionate about and enjoy going to work every day. After the flagship Toastique location generated over $1 million in sales during its first year, without any marketing spend, Keefe discovered that her passion could be turned into serious profits and decided to franchise the concept. Today, Toastique has expanded to include 11 units open across D.C., New Jersey, Colorado, Utah and Florida and has agreements signed for 62 franchise units across the country. Now, the team is looking for more like-minded individuals who want to bring the wholesome and delicious Toastique experience to their communities by leveraging an impressively scalable and simple business model.

“Healthy eating isn’t going out of style,” said Keefe. “The health food industry has been trending upwards year-over-year, and the pandemic brought that into overdrive. Our brand is super simple and scalable, and we have worked hard to perfect our operations, support and menu. If you are dedicated and willing to put in the work, Toastique is a great opportunity to introduce something new and exciting to your community.”

How Toastique Was Started

Twenty-nine-year-old Keefe’s passion for creating healthy meals was born to sustain herself through her rigorous training as a collegiate D1 athlete.

“I was a cheerleader at James Madison University, so I was always on the go, and I had to learn how to eat well,” Keefe said. “Toastique’s menu is everything I’ve always loved eating — juices, smoothies, toasts — the perfect amount of carbs, proteins and fats that will make you feel full without being overstuffed.”

Keefe always worked in the restaurant and hospitality industry. After earning a hospitality degree in college, with a minor in business, she started working as an event coordinator for a hotel in Washington, D.C.

“I was getting super burned out,” said Keefe. “It had always been a hope of mine to open my own restaurant, and after being forced to take a month off because the hotel was going through renovations, it really opened my eyes to how little control I had. One day, I stumbled upon the perfect real estate spot on the water, and I knew it was time to follow my dreams of restaurant ownership.”

By combining her restaurant and hospitality experience with her love for healthy food, Keefe created the Toastique brand. Right away, the concept proved to be a hit in her D.C. community.

“Our primary consumer is anyone who doesn’t mind paying a bit more for a good, quality product,” said Keefe. “This could be young professionals in some markets and wealthy seniors into active lifestyles in other markets. We have products that accommodate any age, which is why we’ve grown so fast.”

Fueled by this popularity, Keefe opened a second location just six months after the first, followed by a third store later that year. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Toastique was able to stay open, profitable and popular thanks to its adoption of third-party delivery services.

Today, Toastique is catching the attention of savvy entrepreneurs across the country. In addition to eight corporate locations open in D.C. and Colorado, and two franchised units open - in New Jersey and one in Florida - the brand has sold a whopping 62 units across 27 franchise partners in its first two years of franchising.

How Toastique Stands Out in the Industry

Over the past 20 years, the health and wellness industry has grown by leaps and bounds, skyrocketing to over $800 billion in 2022. Toastique meets the growing consumer demand for healthy meals with ingredient transparency by serving a unique menu of all-natural gourmet toasts, juices, smoothies and more.

“We are healthy, fast-casual food,” said Keefe. “Almost everything is made in-house, and everything else is sourced locally. Fresh, quick and made-to-order. You can still get a really healthy meal, on the go, in five minutes. That is something that we are really trying to do — make fast food healthy and more accessible.”

With the health food category more popular than ever before, people across America can’t get enough gourmet toast. In fact, Americans currently spend nearly $900,000 per month on avocado toast, up from just $17,000 in 2014. But it's next to impossible to find a restaurant that specializes in toast-based creations.

“We truly don’t believe we have any competitors — we’ve created a niche by offering all the benefits of a cold juice bar, but with the added toast concept,” said Keefe. “It is putting us in a whole different category that reaches a much broader audience. We have all the offerings of a typical juice bar, but we are more of a micro-cafe, which lends itself to a dinner crowd. One of our stores also recently added a liquor license, so our mimosas and Bloody Marys are featuring fresh-made juices, and we’ve added a local vegan ice cream to pull in more of a nighttime crowd.”

Still, Toastique is not a full-blown restaurant, which allows owners to keep operations much simpler and more affordable. “We’ve really done a good job at creating very efficient operations that are built to scale,” said Toastique CFO Kyle Izett. “We created the menu based around requiring no extreme cooking equipment such as ovens, fryers or hoods in the kitchen, which makes overhead less, insurance less, and build-out less. We can run a location with just two people, which means less labor costs. This allows for quick, affordable construction.”

Thanks to a simple business model, quick ramp-up and comparatively low initial investment starting at $347,250, Toastique franchise owners are well-positioned for strong potential returns, Keefe says. In 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic that was negatively affecting the restaurant industry, the brand saw average gross sales of $847,710 and an average net profit of $173,192, with all corporate stores operating at 26% EBITDA after just two years on average.

Why Now is the Time to Buy a Toastique Franchise

Looking ahead, Izett says Toastique has 20 units expected to open by the end of Q2 2023 and 30 by the end of next year. With the goal of signing 17 partners next year, Toastique is continuing to build out its support staff to promote healthy growth. Because incoming franchisees will be joining an emerging brand, they will have the opportunity to work alongside the founders and leadership team to achieve success.

“From the moment franchisees sign on, they receive bi-weekly calls where we walk them through finding a space, the construction, hiring architects, engineers and attorneys,” said Izett. “We help them order all equipment and furniture online and give them spreadsheets for what they will need and when. It is really a turn-key process.”

After construction, Keefe says the team is super hands-on to ensure the grand opening goes as smoothly as possible. “Franchisees come to a 14-day training in D.C., where they learn the manual and the online management system,” she said. “By the time they leave, we make sure they are comfortable and ready to get started. We also provide marketing and grand opening support for the first few weeks as well.”

Now, the Toastique team is looking for passionate and qualified owner-operators who are excited to bring more than just a restaurant to their local community. This can be prospects with experience in the restaurant industry or those who are interested in leaving corporate America and opening their own business for the first time.

“Even if we are just selling juices and toast, we want to connect with customers in every way we can,” said Keefe. “That is why we work with local vendors and encourage franchisees to have as much community involvement as possible. The Toastique brand is built around a sense of community.”

And this sense of community extends beyond the consumer as well, with employee culture being a key touchstone of the Toastique brand.

“Culture is super important to us — half the reason I left my previous job was that there wasn’t a great culture, and the restaurant industry is full of people who left their job because they didn’t feel appreciated,” said Keefe. “We train all team members and really strive for longevity in all of our stores. All of our managers started as team members. We really focus on retention and career development for everyone from front-of-house to dishwashers to make sure our teams can grow alongside the brand.”

The Toastique team has identified several target markets primed for development, including Florida, Texas and California. “All of the Class A, Tier 1 territories are still available, which is a big reason to buy now,” said Izett.

Keefe says she is excited to help fellow entrepreneurs follow in her footsteps and achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. “This is a great way to open a chic, inviting café featuring healthy, all-natural foods that are as wholesome as they are delicious,” she said. “For those who are passionate about health and wellness, with a desire to serve as an ambassador of healthy eating to their community, the time has never been better to join the Toastique family and get in on the ground floor of a rapidly-growing franchise.”

The initial investment required to start a Toastique franchise ranges from $367,570 to $695,975. For more information on franchising with Toastique, visit https://toastiquefranchising.com/.