Saxbys CEO Nick Bayer Explains How We Wound Up in Philly (and Why We’re Never Leaving)
We’re #blessed to be able to partner with Visit Philly to give out free Cold Brew to Philadelphians & Philly visitors alike every Friday in August. This is the second year that we’ve done this, and it’s a thrill giving our Philly guests one big, caffeinated thank you.
Thanks to this partnership, we’ve been hanging out in our Center City office thinking about all-things Philly pretty much all summer (including in-depth discussions about Benjamin Franklin or, as we call him, Benny Frank, and multiple field trips to Visit Philly’s Photo Op spots). So with the city of brotherly love on the brain, we sat down with our very own CEO & Founder, Nick Bayer, to talk about Philly and why it’s the perfect fit for Saxbys.
How long have you been in Philly for?
One of the best decisions I ever made was to move Saxbys to Philadelphia. We came here at the end of 2007 to open our first two Philly-area cafés, Saxbys Lansdale and Saxbys Temple, and then opened up our first tiny, shared space corporate office in Center City.
Why did you decide to base Saxbys out of Philly?
We moved here on the request of our first investor, who was a real estate developer. We agreed that real estate was crucial to Saxbys success, and he offered to teach me the game in the city he knew best: Philly.
Digging deeper though, Philly was so much more for us — it’s a place full of self-starters that are full of pride and passion about where they’re from and what they do. Since Saxbys is an extremely entrepreneurial company, we have always been about that as well. We encourage our guests to take ownership of their Saxbys café, and we go out of our way to hire self-starters throughout the company.
We now have 13 cafés in the area with Saxbys 11th and Locust slated to open August 21st and Saxbys Ambler coming in the fall. And we really planted our flag in the city this summer when we opened our own corporate headquarters to Center City.
Why Center City?
We consider ourselves to be a quintessentially Philly company — we’re resourceful, we’re passionate, and we’re all outgoing, detail oriented, and disciplined (here at Saxbys HQ, we call that being O.D.D.). Philadelphia is the perfect city for a team like us to grow and thrive. So it was important that we set up our headquarters in the heart of town. Our new HQ enables us to make life better for Philadelphians, from creating more jobs in the city to taking lunch breaks to clean the Schuylkill River Trail.
Furthermore, the majority of our current team — and we suspect future team members as well — either already live in the city or plan to. The energy, creativity and positivity in Center City is palpable and offered by very few other places in the country. It was a no-brainer for us to carve out our own space here.
After 11th & Locust, what’s next? Are you going to keep expanding in the city?
Absolutely. There are so many fun, distinct neighborhoods in the city we’d love to be a part of. We have several new, unique partnerships in the works with our great universities. We’ve had a lot of fun opening cafés in the surrounding Philly area, too — we’re gearing up to open a café in Ambler that we’re very excited about, as well as more growth in South Jersey.
There’s no doubt anyone knows the Saxbys menu better than you. What would you recommend?
I honestly wasn’t much of a coffee drinker before I created Saxbys, but that has since changed in a big way. I’ve spent a lot of time on coffee farms, at industry conferences and sampling the menus of high quality competitors and other industry leaders. There’s a ton of variety to the Saxbys menu but for me simplicity reigns supreme. My favorite is an iced Americano — Saxbys espresso over ice. It is my go-to sun, rain or snow —smooth, creamy and a great boost of high quality caffeine.
What’s your favorite place to go in Philly? (Besides Saxbys, of course…)
At Saxbys, hospitality is our number one priority, so I love to go to places that focus on people first too. I’m really inspired by everything at Vernick. To see them excel equally at quality of food and level of service is truly an inspiration to me. It is like going to eat at your best friend’s house, but your best friend happens to be the most talented cook you’ve ever met.
I’m also really into how the Kimpton Hotels operate. They’ve differentiated in an extremely competitive industry by creating authentic properties that are purely focused on making each guest’s stay the most memorable they’ve ever had. All at a great price.
I’ve also always looked up to Danny Meyer — I’ve easily read his book, Setting the Table, more times than anything else I’ve read — so Shake Shack’s definitely on my list too. Although their product is great, seeing the devotion and love for the brand that Shake employees have is really amazing.