Buoyed by its latest multimillion-dollar round of funding and the success of its newly opened spinoff concept, Honeygrow is accelerating the pace of expansion of its pared-down Minigrow brand, CEO Justin Rosenberg says.
Minigrow’s second unit opens today in New York City, with the third location scheduled to open next week.
“The initial success of Minigrow has been great,” Rosenberg says, adding that a Minigrow is planned for Chicago this spring. Minigrow units are in varying stages of development in Boston and Washington, D.C., as well. He declined to provide sales figures.
“There’s a lot of opportunity for it,” he says. “It’s easier to find space for Minigrow than Honeygrow.”
Minigrow operates with a downsized menu that doesn’t require large-scale exhaust hoods in the kitchen. Its units will be about 1,800 square feet—about 700 square feet smaller than typical Honeygrow restaurants.
Honeygrow continues its expansion plans as well, and, in fact, will represent the majority of the company’s new stores in 2018, Rosenberg says. Numbers are still fluid, he says, but he expects to see a total of 10 to 13 new units next year between the two concepts.
“We’re always thinking about growing too rapidly,” he says. “We’re in this for the long game. It’s an ultra-marathon, not just a 5k.”
Earlier this month, Honeygrow secured an additional $18 million in funding, bringing its total fundraising to $70 million since the concept began in 2012.
“There’s a lot of capital out there, and people are looking to deploy it,” he says.
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