New York City-based Wolfnights is ready to more than double its existing footprint as the gourmet wrap concept kicks off a 10-year growth plan that includes corporate and franchise expansion. To help get the ball rolling, Wolfnights signed the lease for a new location at 2675 Broadway in Manhattan.
Wolfnights Founder and CEO Itai Afek plans to open two additional New York locations in 2021 but the company’s more ambitious long-term plan calls for the opening of more than 500 new locations in the next 10 years. Opportunities for low-cost restaurant conversions and unprecedented real estate deals accelerated the concept’s growth plans in 2020.
“Wolfnights was considering a corporate expansion, and that plan accelerated when I saw great deals being made and real estate available in areas I wanted to expand into in New York City,” says Afek. “It was the right time for me to rapidly grow Wolfnights.”
In partnership with Fransmart, Wolfnights plans to expand in New York, New Jersey and along the east coast.
Founded by Afek in 2011, Wolfnights value proposition is the “ideal bite,” meaning each bite is salty, sweet, sour, crunchy and chewy. Many of the concept’s signature menu items feature a blend of Mediterranean and Thai elements, from spicy pickled pineapple to housemade coconut vanilla sauce. The concept’s dough is baked to order on the IronWolf, a huge iron dome heated by a blazing fire, modeled after the traditional food preparation techniques used in the Mediterranean.