INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Y Combinator has invested $120,000 in Mac&d, a build-your-own mac and cheese restaurant that lets customers choose their own adventure from
I popped over to one of the Mac&d locations last week in San Francisco to get my mac on and chat with the founders.For starters, the mac and
Sure, one could argue it hard to mess up mac and cheese, but it somehow been done before
Trust me, I know this from firsthand experience.I opted for a relatively basic mac and cheese with what Mac&d calls its &#Basic& sauce,
which is a blend of cheddar cheeses, a spice mix and a hint of asiago
From there, I selected a combination of a shells and elbow noodle base
For those who are gluten-free, Mac&d also offers a cauliflower base
Next, I picked my mix-ins
Again, I&m super basic, so I just went with bacon and topped it with pulled pork and breadcrumbs.Although the restaurant is tech-enabled, it
less of a tech play and more of a restaurant play, Mac&d founder Chen-Chen Huo (pictured above on right) told TechCrunch.&I wouldn&t
necessarily say with full confidence that we&re a tech company but we&re a company that participates in a lot of tech and integrates tech
into the production of our product to grow the business,& Huo told me.Mac&d currently has two brick-and-mortar locations, both of which are
Mac&d is also available in Portland through what Huo describes as a ghost kitchen
In fact, ghost kitchens are part of the company expansion plans for at least the next 12 months, as it aims to be in about five to seven
cities.&How we plan to do that isn&t necessarily building out more brick-and-mortars in these cities but our expansion strategy sort of ties
into that idea of cloud kitchens — sort of like ghost kitchens,& Huo said
&Essentially we move into commissary kitchens and hop on to existing catering and delivery networks and serve our customers like that.&In
Portland, Mac&d rents out some kitchen space and sells its mac and cheese strictly through providers like UberEats, Caviar, DoorDash,
Postmates and others.The idea is that once Mac&d determines some of the patterns of a specific market via its low-capital ghost kitchen
approach, the company can make a more informed decision of where to open a brick-and-mortar location
Eventually opening brick-and-mortar locations in cities is important, Mac&d co-owner Antony Bello (pictured above on left) told TechCrunch,
because it helps build up the brand and get people on board with the experience.&It an interesting new wave of restaurants,& Bello said
&As far as marketing strategies, it more salient to come in and experience the food because you get a better sense of the kind of people
Putting a face behind it is more difficult if it all online and digital.&Mac&d got its start by doing a series of pop-ups in San Francisco
The mac and cheese restaurant opened its first permanent location in July 2017, located in San Francisco Marina district
That first location, Huo said, was entirely bootstrapped — in part thanks to the money earned through the pop-ups
Mac&d was able to open its second brick-and-mortar location a couple of months ago in June, funded solely off the profits of its first
location.&Theoretically, if we were to continue this trajectory, we could continue to bootstrap and continue to organically grow,& Huo said
&But if there anything about going through YC, it realizing the power and benefits of expanding quickly but also efficiently and
thoughtfully, and taking it one step at a time.&
