What Happened To Avocaderia After Shark Tank?
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Avocado toast, anyone? Stereotypically the favorite food of millennials, people are obsessed with avocado toast. It's not just on bread: The humble green ingredient has enjoyed wild popularity as both an Instagrammable food and a filling kitchen staple, and entrepreneur and restaurateur Alessandro Biggi, along with brother Filippo, cousin Alberto Gramini, and friend Francesco Brachetti, has been wise to cash in on the trend.
In a Bloomberg Quicktake YouTube video, Brachetti said Avocaderia was "born on Instagram" and then opened brick-and-mortar locations. As of 2018, Avocaderia was being run out of a food hall in a converted warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. At the time, the restaurant was open every day, and the team was going through 250-300 Mexican avocados daily making salads, smoothies, sandwiches, and the restaurant's top menu item: the Avoburger featuring smoked salmon and watermelon radish between two avocado "buns." Avocaderia was already successful, but Biggi appeared on "Shark Tank" in Season 9 in February 2018 wanting to use the Sharks' potential investment to open another location in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.
Here's what went down on 'Shark Tank'
Avocaderia co-founder Alessandro Biggi appeared on "Shark Tank" to ask the Sharks for a $300,000 investment for 10% equity in the group's avocado-themed restaurant. Biggi knew his numbers and pitched his company with finesse, noting its $3 million valuation and nearly 50 franchise requests. Biggi tells the Sharks he invested $70,000 of his own money into the restaurant and explains how eight months in, it is doing over $2,000 a day in sales. Of course, Biggi also presents the Sharks with sample avocado dishes from Avocaderia, and they all rave about how delicious they taste.
After a bit of back and forth, Biggi makes a deal with Sharks Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban, who each pledge an investment of $200,000 for 10% equity each in the restaurant, taking him one step closer to his goal of owning 20 locations in five years (via YouTube).
After 'Shark Tank,' Avocaderia moved forward ... but hit a few pits along the way
Later in 2018, Avocaderia opened its second location in Chelsea and collectively the pair of restaurants did $1 million in sales. In the Bloomberg Quicktake video , CEO and co-founder Francesco Brachetti said they hoped to open a California location by 2019. Brachetti said the process for ensuring they always have ripe avocados is complicated, but they seem to have mastered it.
Unfortunately, things went south in June of 2019 when health inspectors found food areas at Avocaderia contaminated with sewage, among other violations, and temporarily closed the Chelsea location. The restaurant reopened days later after the violations were linked to a leak in the basement, which was quickly fixed. Furthermore, COVID-19 shut down the restaurants in 2020, stunting business and potential expansion, but the restaurant survived the pandemic, unlike others. By 2023, Avocaderia had expanded to four restaurant locations in New York City.
Fans share their love as Avocaderia continues to grow
Today, Avocaderia is very much still in business and operates four locations in New York: Brooklyn, Chelsea, Midtown, and Nomad. The restaurant serves a variety of avocado-based dishes like various salads and bowls topped with sliced avocados, fresh homemade guacamole, smoothies, and, of course, classic avocado toast, plus many vegan and gluten-free options. Delivery is now available in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and the restaurant has a loyalty program through which customers can earn points to use on future purchases. Avocaderia even has its own cookbook complete with recipes for dishes like baked avocado with egg and crunchy parm and avo-lime cheesecake. The restaurant has garnered fans from all over the world, including one woman clad in an avocado dress who flew from Australia specifically to try Avocaderia's food.
Over on Instagram, Avocaderia has 67K followers, some of whom take to the platform to comment on the many kinds of avocado dishes the restaurant features on the social media platform — it appears the avocado trend is still plenty popular.
What's next for Avocaderia?
Avocaderia continues to be a "Shark Tank" success story. Although The Reality TV reports the founders and owner left the deal they made with Sharks Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban, this has been difficult to confirm anywhere else. Either way, the business continues to thrive. We expect the founders and owners including "Shark Tank" pitcher Alessandro Biggi will continue to operate Avocaderia based on the company values listed on their website: honesty and integrity, comfort, quality, looking out for the next generation, and encouraging customers to "avo" good time, as well as maintain their commitment to ethical sourcing of their avocados.
We suspect given Avocaderia's great track record when it comes to growth, the company will continue to operate its existing restaurants and probably spread its wings to open even more. When the group opened its Nomad location in early 2023, Biggi told Flatiron Nomad, "This location to us is a love letter to New York ... as an Italian expat it's a very special feeling." Avocaderia may very well continue to welcome customers to several "new home[s]" in the future, and, who knows — maybe Biggi will actually franchise Avocaderia given the many requests the company had before he even appeared on "Shark Tank."