São Paulo – It started as a joke. The mom, Luciana Yazigi, got so many compliments on the zaatar pita bread toasts she’d serve when friends would come over, she told her daughter, Camila: we should sell these toasts! The daughter took it seriously. After all, they’d make a great snack – for a quick bite, to serve at parties, or as an accoutrement to meals. And what had begun as a home operation grew into a business.
“At first, we tested out brand-new flavors and other technical stuff such as shelf life,” says Luciana. While the culinary side developed into a well-oiled machine (not least because Z Bites toasts include extra virgin olive oil), Camila looked after the visual identity and sales channels: an Instagram profile and a WhatsApp number. In no time, the small business was up and running, quickly going from selling to friends to reaching new demographics.
As interest in brick-and-mortar units picked up, so did demand, and the business had to move from the Yazigis’ home kitchen to a more professional facility. “We set up a formal business, rented out headquarters, and are now expanding into new locations. We want to be in hotels in the São Paulo countryside and other places that are good fits for our product,” says Luciana.
The snacks are made with top-shelf product, including imported zaatar, and they are thinner than traditional pita toast – which means they take a bit more work, according to their creator. For all those reasons, they’re priced a bit higher than regular toast. “But our clients don’t complain about the price,” the Z Bites partner guarantees.
The toasts come in 100g packs or in 150g reusable jars, and prices vary depending on flavor. Aside from the original zaatar flavor, pizza, rosemary, lemon pepper, parmesan, and traditional varieties are available.
Tradition around the table
Zaatar pita bread is a classic of Arab cuisine. At the Yazigis’, Arab food gets served twice a week. On Tuesdays, the whole family, about twenty people, shows up for lunch at Luciana’s and Camila’s home.
“We like to be around the table and eat. It’s part of the tradition of our family, and of Arab families in general. The whole culture revolves around eating,” says Luciana, who splits her time between the new business and the building company of which she is a partner alongside her sister, Claudia Yazigi Haddad – a business founded by her father, Walid Yazigi, 60 years ago. In turn, Camila straddles her Z Bites work and a job as a Marketing coordinator.
Luciana is a second-generation descendant of Syrians on her father’s side and Lebanese on her mother’s side. A few years ago, she went to her family’s village in Lebanon to see the land they came from. Besides Camila, she has two other daughters whose role in the new family business involves nothing but eating the delicacies and rooting for success.
When it comes to the future of Z Bites, the outlook is optimistic. “We are doing a good job of structuring ourselves, the projections are good, the is positive, there are lots of return customers. I guess we’ve already made it,” she celebrates.
Check it out:
@z.bites_
Read more:
Arab brands attracted buyers at APAS Show
Reporting by Débora Rubin, in collaboration with ANBA
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
