Operations

'It's a revolution': Jars by Fabio Viviani brings playfulness back to desserts

Jars by Fabio Viviani is a dessert concept that could be coming to a town near you. Though the brand has one unit open in Chicago, it has sold more than a hundred franchise units both domestic and overseas.

Photo courtesy of Jars by Fabio Viviani

August 22, 2023 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group

Fabio Viviani and his business partners run a sizable hospitality company with several brands under its helm, including restaurants, gaming spaces and hotels. Viviani, a chef by trade with more than 30 years of experience, realized how weak restaurants as a business model can be when COVID affected his restaurants. He searched for a better business model, analyzing which markets were growing and could take on another player.

"The QSR space in the dessert genre only had a few players compared to how many players you have in the sandwich spot," Viviani said. "The cookie segment of the market, the fried chicken, the burgers — it's so many brands and so many players that its very hard to come up with something new."

Fabio Viviani, founder of Jars by Fabio Viviani. Photo courtesy of Jars by Fabio Viviani.

Operations

Jars was created out of a few needs Viviani saw. First, he wanted to create a concept that was easy to open and cost effective. Viviani said it costs around $100,000 to open a Jars store. "That puts Jars at a very tactical advantage compared to any other QSR out there that cost many, many multiples of that (cost)," Viviani said.

Second, there is no kitchen expertise required. There's very little cooking or baking happening in the restaurant, as the dessert ingredients are sourced from distribution companies.

"Jars is an assembly line for gourmet desserts and we bake, we finish and we finalize all the ingredient components through our distribution partners," Viviani said, "so we team up with the biggest and best names out there in the baking industry and they provide all the components in our desserts. So what Jars has created is a dessert concept that requires zero expertise, zero skill … none of that. There is no pastry chef, no head chef, there is no need for anyone with an educated background in cooking or baking."

Vivani said training only takes two to three days to train an employee how to assemble the jarred desserts with marginal chances for error. It's a successful business model, he added, that creates high profitability, low labor costs and low food costs.

The first Jars opened six months ago in the West Loop of Chicago, a growing, up-and-coming area of the city. The brand has already sold about 50 units nationally and 60 to 70 units internationally.

"If you're in the business of Subway or KFC, the cookies or cupcakes, you've got a lot of the back of the house equipment. You've got a lot of cooking … and raw ingredients," Viviani added. "You've got a lot of fresh material. There's a lot of change for inconsistency. None of that happens at Jars."

Within the first six months of operations, Jars' EBIDTA is in excess of 30%. Food costs sit at just 15%. Labor costs are between 16-20%. It's the lowest costs Viviani's team has seen in any operation.

The dessert jars measure between six and eight ounces and are priced between $5 and $9. Photo courtesy of Jars by Fabio Viviani.

On the menu

"It's a great business model that provides incredible flavor profiles, incredible selection (and) a lot of opportunity for business," Viviani said, including catering events like weddings, parties, communions or bar mitzvahs. "It's a better dessert concept. If you go into a cookie shop, and I love cookies and I buy them regularly, there's not a lot to it. It's a cookie. They're great, but it's one cookie. If you buy cupcakes, they're cupcakes. The topping is the fun. With us, you get literally the whole cake and pie experience in one sexy, beautiful, easy to execute, portable jar. It's a revolution."

The dessert jars are six to eight ounces depending on the treat inside. The jars are priced between $5 and $9 depending on the offering chosen.

Jars rotates between 150 varieties. "We made a list of everything we like to eat," Vivani said of the choices. "I have a lot of Italian influence, Chris (Carlton, director of operations) has a lot of American influence, we've got partners who have different ethnicities. We came up with a list of the 100-plus best desserts and sweet combinations on the planet: tres leches, tiramisu, red velvet cheesecake, apple pie, banana cream pie, churros — anything and everything you can think about, we have a version of it."

Then there's rocky road, Mississippi mud pie, blueberry cheesecake and strawberry sorbet – crowd pleasers the team thought would sell well. The most popular will depend on the regionality, Viviani said. In Chicago, the brand opened in the middle of winter, so a heavier dessert like banana cream pie and Oreo cookies and cream sell well.

Climate, regionality and the state in which the stores are located will determine the menu, and franchisees will have flexibility to build their own menus with regional favorites like, say, Derby Pie in Kentucky. "That makes our business model a lot more palatable for people that don't want to be under the exact cookie-cutter mold most of the QSR franchisees … give you," Viviani said.

With more than 30 years as a chef running some of the biggest names in restaurants, Viviani and his team know how to create winning flavor profiles that stand out. The food industry veterans have served millions of desserts and has formulated menus "countless times," Viviani added. "These are crafted carefully with layers and layers and toppings with crunch, creamy and sweet, salty and tangy" flavors.

The desserts are made daily to order. The Mississippi Mud Pie jar is layered with cake, caramel and chocolate custard with a buttercream vanilla rum. It's finished with chocolate chips and chocolate pearls. They looked for the best chocolate for the flavor profile, including the best chocolate cake they could source.

"We team up with them, give them our specs, and they bake the cake for us and ship it to us," Viviani explained. "Then we do buttercream frosting. We get vanilla bean and we mix it with the heavy cream and butter and now we have a beautiful vanilla buttercream frosting. Then we buy chocolate chips. Then we buy the chocolate pearls. Then we assemble every thing together. That's how we do it for every jar.

"We are also a marketing company that sells desserts. We are very good at matching the heritage with the flavor profile with anything that is going on these days. In St. Louis, they've got the St. Louis buttercream pie. … Any state you go (to), there are some major bragging rights about something food related."

The brand cross utilizes ingredients, such as using one custard or pastry cream and adding in fresh fruit, jams and flavorings to reduce food waste. Jars stores carry less than $5,000 in inventory at any given time. Waste at Jars is less than half a percent, Viviani said.

In an era of social media outlets such as Instagram and TikTok, presentation is important, as people eat with their eyes first, Viviani added. "It's almost as important, if not more important than the actual flavor," he said. "You see plenty of products that look great but they taste like crap. This is not the case for Jars. It's going to taste as good as it looks."

Moving forward

The brand has sold more than a hundred units both nationally and internationally, with five to 10 units per territory. The stores should pay for themselves after the first year or two, Viviani said.

As a company, the brand has onboarded a marketing, media and development partner to provide a turnkey solution for all franchisees so they won't have to worry about public relations. There's help choosing a location, for signage and for obtaining building permits.

He added, "Our company has the ability to take care of everything. We created a concept that could not be easier to manage, that could not be more profitable (and) could not be cheaper to build. Franchise success is our modus operandi."

About Mandy Wolf Detwiler

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.

An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.

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