Redefining Fiore
Chef Ed Crochet and Pastry Chef Justine MacNeil restructured their business to prioritize work-life balance.
photos: will blunt
Completely overhauling their restaurant wasn’t initially part of the plan for husband-wife team Ed Crochet and Justine MacNeil, chef-owners of Fiore (formerly Fiore Fine Foods), but after examining their business, and their priorities, they decided it was time for a change. Good timing, too, since their first child, Roman, was born in 2022.
“We were doing dinner service and, having had the baby, I had to step away for a while,” says MacNeil, who oversaw and ran the pastry program at the couple’s first restaurant, a fine dining, day-to-night Italian concept, which closed in the spring of 2023. Crochet and MacNeil opened their new, 24-seat, daytime-only cafe, Fiore, last October.
While operating the previous restaurant, “it felt like we were living separate lives, but opening the new restaurant put us back on the same team,” MacNeil says.
The stars had aligned to get Crochet and MacNeil to this new place in their lives, once dominated by many hard working hours spent as chef de cuisine and executive pastry chef at the acclaimed Craft and Del Posto in New York City. The move to Philadelphia came about after Crochet, who had been working for Stephen Starr’s former catering operation in New York, was offered the chance to relocate to Philly in 2017 (newly married, MacNeil moved a year later).
“The original plan was for Justine to open a bakery or chocolate shop, and I would continue to work for Starr,” Crochet says, but the duo quickly felt like they wanted to work together on a new project of their own.
Fiore Fine Foods opened in 2019 and “got off to a great start,” just in time for the pandemic to hit. Like other restaurant owners, Crochet and MacNeil switched to takeout and added a pastry and gelato program on the weekends to keep up sales.
“We finally felt like we were getting back to normal financially toward the end of 2022, and we felt like we were doing pretty well at the start of 2023, but then our lease was coming to an end,” Crochet says. “We didn’t have any backers or investors, just our own savings and loans. And then the restaurant was broken into six times, and the labor market flipped upside down; we couldn’t hire a line cook for a year.”
The biggest hurdle to hiring was the lack of public transportation in the immediate area, which narrowed down the pool of potential staff. While the Queen Village neighborhood surrounding the restaurant boasted beautiful homes and what Crochet says was an “extremely loyal following,” there were also few apartments or affordable living options in the area. That last bit just added to the cons beginning to outweigh the pros in terms of continued operations for the original location—at least in that particular space. Having a newborn only reinforced the couple’s thoughts about converting to a daytime-only operation.
Fortunately, MacNeil had already been intermittently looking at real estate spaces. Then, in the summer of 2022, “a space I had my eye on went on the market and it checked all of the boxes,” she says. The space was practically move-in ready, having housed a former cafe, plus it was situated in an existing apartment building and close to public transportation in the burgeoning East Kensington neighborhood—home to many young professionals and families. That’s also where Crochet and MacNeil happen to live.
“The new location has been so helpful,” MacNeil says. “We’re in an area with a lot of younger people in the industry looking for work and many living within walking distance; we’re also off of two subway stops.”
The couple began planning for the transition before opening the new location. They were even able to recruit existing staff members. Some of the previous customers were “not too happy” with the change, but Fiore, which is open five days a week, has already created a new following.
Torta del Nonno, Chocolate Pastry Cream, Pasta Frolla, Sliced Almonds
Brisket Sandwich: Roman-Style Braised Beef, Tomato, Carrot, Garlicky Broccoli Rabe, House Roll
Just like at the former restaurant, MacNeil arrives early each morning to bake fresh items, from various cornetti filled with house-made “Nutella” and other laminated treats, to fiocchi di neve poppella (snowflakes) filled with sheep’s milk ricotta and pistachio paste inspired by a trip to Italy, along with doughnuts, “old school Italian cookies,” and more.
“We probably have 20 unique pastries each day,” says MacNeil, whose production schedule runs Wednesday through Monday. She also oversees the bread program for the various sandwiches, rolls, and focaccia, and enjoys offering classic cakes like torta caprese and torta di carote, as well as handmade chocolates for special occasions and a case full of her gelatos sold by the scoop.
Lunch is where Crochet gets to show off his savory creativity, with a fresh pasta on the menu every day like ricotta gnudi, along with vegetable-forward offerings like fried cauliflower with capers, raisins, and almonds and various breakfast and lunch sandwiches.
The first floor features a bar with the pastries, gelato, and coffee and a small dining space at the back. All of the pastry, bread, and gelato production equipment and the main cooking line is in the basement of the two-story, roughly 1,300-square-foot building.
The sheer downsize in space has helped offset finances tremendously, Crochet says, but there are other benefits from the change. Even with the extra labor of making things from scratch, the drop in rent, overhead, and food costs are much lower at about forty-five percent of sales combined. Fiore employs seven full-time back-of-house staff, along with a front-of-house manager and six baristas. About half of sales come from takeout and just under half from in-store dining (it’s a packed house with a wait on weekends), along with fifteen percent of sales from delivery.
Crochet and MacNeil have also considered the work-life balance needs of their staff—raising wages and opening the lines of communication to utilize tip-pooling and 10-hour shifts with three days off for back-of-house staff.
“We’ve always treated people really well—that’s at the core of our operation—and we’ve had folks that we hired that didn’t leave during the transition,” Crochet says.
Still, the door remains open for future growth and endeavors. “We’re running a new pop-up dinner series and offering takeaway meals for holidays,” he says, noting that there’s always a chance to go back to dinner service once their son gets older.
“For me, I enjoy being able to spend time with Roman and Justine,” Crochet says, and MacNeil agrees. Fiore “is a concept we’re super proud of. We’re really excited to see how we can fit in this new neighborhood, serve others, and be able to work together during the day while still having a family and spending time with each other.” A win-win for everyone.
