Growing a Restaurant Business From a Trailer to the Grocery Aisle
Photo Caption: Picnik's new line of buttered coffee is now available at Whole Foods Markets countrywide.
Skift Take
Picnik's growth tells a larger story of how small restaurant entrepreneurs are growing enterprise businesses leveraging community-based wellness trends and social media.
Picnik is a poster child for a food brand that grew from local trailer to national enterprise.
Naomi Seifter opened her first storefront in 2013 in a repurposed shipping container. Her company, Picnik, has since grown to include a second Austin trailer, a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Austin, a cafe inside Whole Foods 365 in Upland, California, and a bottled coffee line available at Whole Foods groceries countrywide.
The brand built a loyal customer base by creating a menu stacked with items for anyone following popular food philosophies from paleo to ketogenic and eager for access to once elusive elixirs such as butter coffee and bone broth. Seifter then went one step further by eliminating most major allergens and sourcing the majority of meat from local farms around Texas. Local produce is also used when it aligns with the menu.
“There was something I felt to be fundamentally missing around the experience of eating healing food. I had learned to cook at home out of necessity,
