Mac Mart shrinks from a storefront to a kiosk, but expands its food offerings
Now operating as Mini Mac Mart, the mac-and-cheese specialist sells salads, sandwiches, drinks, and baked goods by other local food companies.
Mac Mart, the mac-and-cheese cafe, has left its Rittenhouse storefront location of nearly a decade in favor of a kiosk three blocks away.
Mini Mac Mart — as sisters Marti Lieberman and Pam Lorden call their Center City stand— soft-opens Thursday at 18th and Arch Streets, outside of the Comcast Technology Center and down the block from Biederman’s caviar kiosk.
Although they’re working in a smaller space, Lieberman and Lorden have expanded their product line beyond their various mac and cheese bowls to include snacks and foods from local businesses, such as cinnamon milk buns from Huda, cupcakes and sweets from Sweet Box, fresh fruit lemonades from Dillonades, hoagies and wraps from Marinucci’s Deli, and salads from Big Bite Salad Co. (the sisters’ in-house brand). The lineup will vary depending on availability.
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Lieberman, 36, launched Mac Mart in January 2013 as a food truck on the Drexel University campus, and Lorden, 39, joined her soon after. The store opened in May 2016 in a former shoe-repair shop on 18th Street near Chestnut; it closed last month.
Lieberman said challenges on 18th Street forced them to rethink the storefront. Since the pandemic, she said, foot traffic and catering orders from offices had dropped. With fewer people on the street at night, she said, the business’ front door and window became a frequent target of vandals.
Besides, Lieberman acknowledged, “we’re very niche. People have to really want a one-pound bowl of mac and cheese, and that narrowed our audience.”
In response, Lieberman and Lorden launched Munch Machines, a vending-machine business stocked with food from local small businesses.
The machines are located at Evo at Cira Centre South, an apartment complex near 29th and Chestnut Streets, and at Motto by Hilton in Rittenhouse.
“That model has continued to grow for us over the past 4½ years,” Lieberman said. “So when it came time to close Mac Mart, rebrand it, or pivot, we leaned into what we knew worked.”
Mini Mac Mart draws directly from that vending-machine approach, combining Mac Mart’s core product with a broader mix of ready-to-eat food in a kiosk that can be buttoned up tightly after hours. Customers can see the products through the front window and order off the side window.
Over the next year, Lieberman and Lorden plan to focus on refining the kiosk model while continuing catering, market pop-ups, and Munch Machines.
“If this small model works, which we’re confident it will, we could bring it into other small spaces — airports, amusement parks, college campuses,” Lieberman said. “This time, we know we don’t need 400 square feet or more. We can operate efficiently in a very small footprint and still serve a quality product.”
Mini Mac Mart, 18th and Arch Streets. Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday.