Built one bowl
at a time.
Maya Khan and Daniel Reeves opened the first Bowl & Branch on Bedford Avenue in March 2017. Nine years later: 32 corporate-owned stores in four cities, a single central kitchen, and a menu that’s never crossed $20.
- 2017
First store, Williamsburg
Maya Khan and Daniel Reeves opened the original Bedford Avenue store with a $40k lease and a $24k oven. Twelve menu items, all under $13.
- 2019
Brooklyn three-pack
Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Greenpoint added in nine months. The bowl spec stabilised at six bases × six proteins × seventeen toppings.
- 2020
The app shipped
March 2020. Built in eight weeks during the COVID pivot. Pickup-only at first; saved 7 of 11 stores from closing.
- 2022
DC + central kitchen
Opened the Logan Circle store and a Maryland central kitchen. The kitchen makes every dressing on Mondays; it ships to all 23 stores Tuesday morning.
- 2024
Boston + 30th store
Boston launched with three stores in eight months. Hit 30 stores total in March 2024 — exactly seven years after Williamsburg opened.
- 2026
32 stores · 1.2M bowls / yr
Two new Boston stores in Q1. The chain serves about 1.2 million bowls a year, with an average ingredient travel of 23 miles.
Price never crosses $20
We've held the menu under $20 since 2017. When ingredient costs rise, the toppings bowl shrinks before the bowl price moves. Two minor menu price hikes in nine years; both 25¢.
Source within 90 miles
Every store sources greens, base grains, and most toppings from farms within 90 miles. The central kitchen ships dressings; everything else is local to that store.
No franchise model
Every store is corporate-owned. The economics work; franchising compromises the spec. We've turned down inbound franchise requests since 2020.
App is the upsell
We don't run loyalty in-store. The app earns rewards. Walk-ins still get free bowls — they get them through Branch tier on the app, with no in-store hard sell.
Maya & Daniel.
Maya Khan grew up watching her grandmother run a small canteen in Lahore — bowls of grain, vegetable, and spice, served cheap to factory workers on Friday lunches. Daniel Reeves was a software PM at a company that’d built a salad chain’s first POS system. They met at an Indian wedding in Sunset Park, talked about food economics until 2 am, and shook hands on the original Williamsburg lease ten weeks later. Both still work in stores once a month — usually Saturdays.
