The New Format
Gregorys Coffee, the New York City-born specialty coffee chain operating within the Craveworthy Brands portfolio, opened its first Monmouth County location on September 17 at 360 Route 9 in Manalapan, N.J. — and with it, the brand's first double-lane drive-thru in its 20-year history.
The unit is a format milestone for a chain that has built more than 50 locations primarily around urban walk-in traffic. Adding a double-lane forecourt positions Gregorys to compete more directly in suburban and commuter corridors where throughput speed is a primary driver of ticket volume — territory long dominated by QSR coffee chains and c-store dispensed-beverage programs.
Opening Events
Founder Gregory Zamfotis anchored a two-day celebration around the opening. A Wednesday evening invite-only Coffee & Chat ran from 6 to 8 p.m., featuring latte art demonstrations, brand history discussion, and samples of the café's freshly baked pastries and prepared food. Zamfotis worked both the drive-thru window and the in-store counter from 8 to 10 a.m. Thursday before a community ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m.
Thursday's public grand opening included $1 small hot coffee or cold brew from 5:30 a.m. to noon. Guests ordering at the 20th minute of any hour received their full order free — a nod to the brand's 20th anniversary. Orders placed at the 28th minute earned a signed bag of Gregs House coffee, the number tied to Zamfotis' personal lucky number. The gamified hourly windows are a growing tactic in specialty coffee marketing, designed to drive repeat visits and social sharing within a single trading day.
Why It Matters for Operators
The Manalapan opening is worth tracking for c-store and foodservice operators watching the competitive dispensed-beverage landscape. Gregorys differentiates on in-house roasting and daily back-of-house pastry baking — a full vertical integration play that contrasts with the commissary-supplied model common to many c-store foodservice programs. Its loyalty program, the "Gregular" tier accessible through the brand app, mirrors the frequency-driving mechanics that chains like Wawa and Sheetz have used to build dispensed-beverage share.
Craveworthy Brands, which operates more than 300 locations across 20-plus concepts in the U.S. and internationally, provides Gregorys with shared infrastructure — supply chain, technology, and franchise development support — that accelerates suburban expansion without proportional overhead growth. For franchise and multi-unit operators evaluating the specialty coffee segment, the double-lane drive-thru format signals that Gregorys is engineering its next growth phase around convenience-oriented real estate, not just urban foot traffic.
"Having grown up in this area, opening our first Monmouth County café feels especially meaningful," Zamfotis said. "This celebration is our opportunity to thank the Manalapan community for welcoming us and to give guests a closer look at the coffee, craft and people behind Gregorys."
With 50-plus units and a maturing loyalty base, Gregorys is entering the phase of chain development where format diversification — drive-thru, suburban pads, commuter-corridor endcaps — typically accelerates unit growth and tests the operational limits of back-of-house quality standards at speed.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
