C3 currently has more than 200 digital kitchens, and 75 more are coming through Q1
Innovative digital platform Creating Culinary Communities, or C3, is transforming nearly two dozen Speciality’s Café & Bakery locations into one of its proprietary concepts, EllaMia.
Specialty’s, which opened in 1987, decided in May to permanently close its more than 50 locations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. C3 acquired 22 of the stores located in California, Washington, and Illinois through an M&A transaction after the chain filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The acquisition will create up to 500 new jobs.
EllaMia one of C3’s eight proprietary brands is a café and bakery that serves sandwiches, baguettes, wraps, salads, pastries, macarons, and specialty chocolates. The breakfast and lunch items will be featured alongside a proprietary couture coffee blend created in partnership with Italian coffee maker Lavazza. EllaMia was created by chef Romain Fournel, who previously worked at Jean
Sam Nazarian has been in the food and beverage industry for almost 20 years as the leader of lifestyle hospitality company sbe. And within those two decades, his company always tried to understand trends and what might be around the corner.