DEAL ROOM: From Apron to Owner — Gregorys Coffee Signs Its First Franchisee, and He’s Family
Every once in a while, a deal tells you something about how a brand was actually built. This week, we got one.
Gregorys Coffee, the Manhattan-born, family-run specialty coffee company founded in 2006 by Gregory Zamfotis, just signed its first-ever franchise agreement. And the operator on the other side of the signature? Stavros Zamfotis. Gregory’s younger cousin. Nine years inside the business. Started as a barista. Worked his way up to district manager. Helped scale the brand from 5 to 36 locations across New York and New Jersey. And is now opening his first owned-and-operated unit in Bergen County, NJ.
You can’t script that. (Well, you can, but the audience always knows)
On the surface: one store, one operator, one county. Pull back, and there are three signals that made me want to share this in The Deal Room this week:
Gregorys earned the right to franchise. The brand joined the Craveworthy Brands portfolio in 2025 and launched its franchise program in 2026. For nearly two decades, it stayed company-owned, hyper-disciplined, and laser-focused on its NYC roastery, scratch-made food, and its loyal community of “Gregulars.” That’s not a brand that was waiting to franchise. That’s a brand that earned the right to.
The first franchisee is a values statement. The first anything is always more meaningful than the next 50. Your first investor, first hire, first franchisee. These are signaling decisions. Gregg Majewski, Founder & CEO of Craveworthy, put it cleanly: Stavros started behind the counter, bet on himself, and never stopped owning the outcome. That’s the kind of operator the platform was built for. Translation: this system rewards people who actually operate. Not financial tourists. Not absentee owners with a checkbook.
The “homegrown franchisee” playbook is underrated. Turning your best internal operators into your best external franchisees gets you lower training cost, higher operational fidelity from day one, and pre-existing cultural alignment. But the real kicker? Every prospective franchisee Gregorys meets going forward gets to hear the same story: “Our first franchisee was an employee for nine years.” That’s not a marketing line. That’s a moat.
The takeaway - Gregorys is now actively seeking experienced operators in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Mountain West, and select West Coast regions. If Stavros is the prototype they’re underwriting against, the bar is set high (and that’s exactly where it should be).
Coffee is one of the most punishing categories in foodservice. The brands that win are built on culture, craft, and operators who actually care.
Gregorys looks like it plans to franchise the way it built, one Gregular, one barista, and now one franchisee at a time. Respect.
To learn more about franchise opportunities or other areas of collabortion with Gregorys Coffee & Craveworthy Brands, please click here (or contact me directly).
