When you have dishes as tasty as Naya, which is known for Lebanese food, offered in 34 locations on the East Coast, the challenge isn’t always persuasion, but trial. Try it and you will like it. That’s the bet. But how to get food on new forks? One solution: catering pop-ups.
Alexis Ortiz, Naya’s senior catering manager
“We bring a mini-version of Naya to consumers,” said Alexis Ortiz, senior catering manager, in an interview. “We did our first one in Boston in June and it was great. We had about 70 guests from the company we went to, and the next week we had double that number.”
Sure, it takes set-up. Hot holding boxes. Sterno. Folding tables. But the return is worth it, according to Ortiz.
“The pop-ups are a great way to feed people,” she said. “It’s about creating relationships that last past the catering experience. The last one I went to I heard a customer, say, Oh, I’ve never heard of this before, I’m excited to try it. There was a lot of interaction between our team and the guests.”
Ortiz has experience providing meals at scale. Prior to Naya she worked for Aramark at Citi Field, running its events and club spaces. The New York Mets may be famously star-crossed but thanks to Ortiz fans had access to championship-level food.
She sees catering as a key component to Naya’s growth. “Last year we did $5 million in catering and this year we’re on track for $8 million,” she said, adding that the brand wants to be in 200 locations by 2030.
Making the food is the fun part. Shawarma, falafel, kebabs, baklava, Managing the orders can be trickier.
“We used to have just one person running the program, with emails and phone calls,” she said. “But now we’re in the process of upgrading our catering software, which will allow us to do more with online ordering and data. We may know that John Smith has ordered three times, but is John Smith linked to a company? And if so, who else in that company could we reach out to?”
The new software will take away friction for consumers when punching in orders. “You’re going to be able to go on your phone and make catering orders, for pick-up or delivery,” she said. “We want to make it simpler, whether it’s for an annual holiday party or a weekly lunch order.”
And expect more pop-ups.
“I don’t even look at them from a catering perspective but from a let’s-get-people-in-the-door perspective,” she said. “The events are great experiences to have guests come and try our food, see the full menu, find out where our locations are. We think if they try our food we will see them later in a store.”
