Maman
Coffee chain · 63+ locations · NYC, DC, CT, NJ, PA, MD, VA, FL, TX, NC; Montreal, Toronto
Maman still feels like the two-person SoHo café its founders built. It's now a chain of 60-plus cafés running on private-equity fuel, and workers rate the pay just 2.9 out of 5.
The Big Picture
Maman is still run by the married couple who opened its first SoHo café in 2014, and its investors say they are backing the founders. Pay is the weak spot: employee reviews rate it 2.9 out of 5 and describe reliance on tips and no paid time off for regular staff. Maman answers to private equity investors led by TriSpan, its backer since 2020.
The Dirty Details
Ownership
TriSpanPrivate Equity
TriSpan is a New York and London private equity firm founded in 2015 whose Rising Stars fund invests exclusively in restaurants, often as the first institutional money into an emerging brand. Its restaurant portfolio also includes Rosa Mexicano and Yardbird. It has twice held onto a brand past the life of the fund that bought it, closing a continuation vehicle that cashed out the original investors while TriSpan itself reinvested: Naya in July 2025 and Maman in May 2026.
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Company data last updated September 2026
How does one person build and research all this? They don't: here's how it actually works. Verdicts are our opinions, based on the public sources cited above as of September 2026. Spotted something off? or learn more.