Our Story

Born in Australia, the global leaders in specialty cafe concept, inspired by wellness-forward lifestyle, specialty coffee, and embracing technology and innovation. Citizen’s management team has proven experience from Australia's leading brands in scaling the concept.

Industry Leading ‘Store Level’ Profitability of 20%

The breakfast restaurant industry is an extremely profitable sector due to its high customer demand, cost-effective ingredients, and quick service model. Breakfast items like eggs, pancakes, and coffee have low food costs but can be sold at attractive price points, leading to strong profit margins.

Additionally, breakfast service typically involves faster table turnover, allowing for more customers to be served in a shorter time frame. This combination of low overhead costs and high volume sales makes breakfast restaurants a lucrative opportunity in the food and beverage industry.

Our Traction

Citizens successfully completed an oversubscribed $1.2M crowd raise on Republic in 2021, which saw notable angels such as Randi Zuckerberg (Facebook, Zuckerberg Media, Hugg) and Sean Davis (MLS Captain) join Citizens as advisors.

We've spent eight years perfecting our model, refining our chef-driven breakfast menus, specialty roasted coffee, and craft cocktails. This dedication has led to a beloved all-day café experience, evidenced by thousands of 5-star reviews.

Why Breakfast? Why Now?

Breakfast is the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. restaurant industry, and we're uniquely positioned to capitalize on this trend. Our business model boasts industry-leading 'store level' profitability of 18%. This is driven by:

1. High Customer Demand: Everyone loves a great breakfast!
2. Cost-Effective Ingredients: Breakfast staples like eggs, pancakes, and coffee offer low food costs with attractive price points, leading to strong profit margins.
3. Quick Service Model: Faster table turnover means more happy customers served in less time.

Proven Traction & Explosive Growth

Our journey of scale has already begun, with current locations thriving in New York, Houston, Austin and many more markets on the way!

1. 2024 Revenue: Over $4.9M+ and growing rapidly year-over-year -- on track to hit $12M in 2025
2. Per-Store Sales: Averaging above industry giants like Starbucks
3. Efficient Expansion: Significantly lower build-out costs than competitors like Starbucks or Shake Shack, enabling faster, more efficient growth.
4. Houston Success: Our first store outside NYC, opened in 2024, is hitting an annual run rate of over $2 million, demonstrating incredible market acceptance.

Kingscrowd Interview

Citizens Coffee: Scaling an Australian-Style Café Brand Across Texas & Beyond

Austin Expansion

https://austin.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/citizens-of-austin-opening/

Best Breakfast in Houston

https://houston.eater.com/maps/best-breakfast-restaurants-houston

Beyond our cafes, our CPG channel is successfully distributing coffee pods, beans, and K-Cups into grocery stores, homes, and offices, further diversifying our revenue streams.

Pathway to Citizens At Scale: Our Ambitious Future

Following the amazing response in Houston, we are now focused on deepening our foothold in Texas with planned launches in the Austin and Dallas markets, alongside expanding our presence in New York.

Our goal is to grow profitably, using free cash flow and strategic capital injections to fuel our expansion. We project to have 40 stores across the country, producing $100 million in revenue by 2029 across our restaurants, retail, and wholesale channels.

Following in the footsteps of IPO brands:

Citizens has a goal to grow its business profitably, use free cash flow as well as strategic capital injections to fuel our growth over the next 4 years. At this point, the company is projecting to have 40 stores across the country, producing $ 100 million in revenue by 2029 across our restaurants, retail and wholesale channels. Upon completing our projected growth pipeline, we hope to follow public brands who have successfully executed an IPO.

Forward-looking projections are not guaranteed.

Join Our Journey: Why Invest in Citizens?

In 2021, Citizens successfully completed an oversubscribed $1.2M crowd raise on Republic, attracting notable advisors like Randi Zuckerberg (Facebook, Zuckerberg Media, Hugg) and Sean Davis (MLS Captain). This demonstrates strong investor confidence in our vision.

In 2024, Citizens started a crowdfunding campaign (on StartEngine), raising $1.5M and now are expanding access to that round on Wefunder based on popular demand from our community.

We've poured our lives into building this company, not just as restaurant operators, but as individuals committed to seeing Citizens become one of the top breakfast brands in the country. We are incredibly excited about the future and invite you to be a part of this journey with us.

Building with Purpose: Our Local Legends Program

At Citizens, we believe in growing our brand alongside the communities we serve. That's why we've launched our 'Local Legends' program. Through this initiative, we've partnered with over 260 local non-profits, community programs, and grassroots organizations, sharing a portion of each site's revenue. To date, we have directed over $40,000 donations from Citizens and our customers towards these Local Legends.

This not only deepens our community engagement but also helps grow the Citizens community in and outside our brand, creating a positive impact where it matters most.

Invest in Citizens today and help us bring the best of Australian café culture to America!