APRIL 2011

as seen on fastcasual.com; to view full article click here

MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2011 – BY LISA JENNINGS

as seen in Restaurant News Magazine

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 – BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO

as seen on inc.com

Sure, it’s glamorous. But New York Fashion Week is not all champagne fountains and elaborately coiffed models pacing the tents. Assembling all that glitz is a lot of hard work – and not just for the armies of stylists and limo drivers.

If you’re not blinded by the flashbulbs, it’s easy to see that Fashion Week can be a marketer’s daydream. It’s tastemaker central, with crowds saturated with cultural influencers: bloggers, buyers, designers, and editors. The big labels, of course, have a literal center-stage during Fashion Week, but emerging fashion, design, and beauty companies also can take advantage. So can, well, anyone. And you don’t need to take the Mercedes approach and sponsor the whole shebang.

In fact, a little humility can go a long way. In the throes of the recession last year, Fashion Week could have had an identity crisis. The industry was wounded, but it decided to rally its forces and encourage shoppers to join the fashion week party. Dubbed Fashion’s Night Out, the Friday night city-wide shopping event, which layers in-store after-hours promotions with celebrity meet-and-greets and musial events, has now spread to Los Angeles’ Rodeo Drive. Events centered around making Fashion Week accessible to average folks (well, average folks who can stimulate the fashion economy) are also being held in a handful of other cities.

We’ve consulted the experts in promotions, marketing, and events at growing companies trying to get noticed at Fashion Week. Here are some of their best tips.

1. Hold a Charity Event.
Even in this week of celebrating decadence, charity can be a big draw. Stuart Weitzman, the shoe designer, has found a potent formula for brand promotion. It’s one part charity (ovarian cancer awareness) mixed with one party celebrity and poured over a ping pong competition.

“Our customers are women, we latched onto ovarian cancer in part because it is a disease that’s important to them, and can be, if not cured, prevented. But when you just ask people for money for a cause, you don’t get a lot of response,” Weitzman says. “If you make it fun, it’s a lot easier to draw a crowd. And that’s part of what’s good for the brand.”

Why a ping pong tournament? Pretty much just because Weitzman loves the sport. It’s also zany enough to raise an eyebrow, which is just what Weitzman wants.

“Of course, there’s a little bit of show business in the fashion business,” he says. “When you make a lot of noise, people listen. Newspapers magazines cover it – you get your name in front of the public and see you’re doing something worthwhile in addition to making beautiful shoes.”

2. Throw a Party.
Ideeli, an online private sale site, is a Fashion Week sponsor online. But to extend its Fashion Week presence, Ideeli is also hosting an end-of-week bash. The target audience: you guessed it, influencers. Well, at least of the blogger variety.

“The primary focus of that party is to reach out to all of the bloggers who have been covering fashion week all week long,” said Tamara Rosenthal, Ideeli’s executive director of brand marketing. “We appreciate the blogger community, they’re very important to us and the designers we work with every day.”

The Ideeli and Style Coalition party is slated for the night shows end, (“So no one has to worry about waking up early the next day,” Rosenthal says), and Fashion’s Night Out is also ripe for event-hosting. Gilt City is hosting a Fashion Week launch party, and plenty of the Friday night retail events have party elements – lights, music, and celebrity appearances.

3. Cater a Show.
When Gregory Baratte, a former director of marketing for Louis Vuitton, launched Hello Pasta, an all-natural fast and casual pasta eatery in midtown Manhattan, this January, he thought he’d said goodbye to Fashion Week being part of his job. Not so much.

When a friend told him cosmetics company M.A.C. and Milk Studios, which together host emerging artists and designers during Fashion Week, were looking for a new caterer, he went for it. This week he and the Hello Pasta team are feeding models, backstage crew, guests, editors, and buyers neat little boxes of penne or fusilli from five catering stations in the studios.

While a company that deals in hearty carbs might not seeme to be the snuggest fit for lithe models, the brands are comfortably well matched.

“M.A.C. and Milk are known to support young companies, young designers, not the biggest fashion brand,” Baratte says. “Because we are a start-up and we are trying to make it, it makes it a community of people trying to start-up. And that’s just where we want to be.”

When is it worthwhile to trade a week’s worth of food for exposure, though? “When you have a new product, you need as many people as you can to try it. When I realized we would be serving more than 4,000 people that week, I knew it was a good idea.”

Baratte wanted to create repeat customers, and encourage word-of-mouth advertising. And the shoe fit, because Hello Pasta is opening a second location in New York’s Garment Districe this fall. “The No. 1 objective is to have a group of trendsetters try the product, and this group of people at Fashion Week are a lot of opinion leaders and trendsetters.”

4. Pamper the Influencers.
You’ll get a lot of their eyeballs along the way. That’s the strategy John Amato’s Show Media, an Inc. 500 company based in New York, employs. Last year in the economic downturn, Show Media, which supplies about one-third of New Yorks taxicabs with advertising and cab-toppers, decided to donate $40,000 in ads to Fashion’s Night Out.

“Last year fashion was really beat up. in donating the ads we were trying to help out the people who mean so much to us,” Amato says.

This year, Show Media is maintaining a presence during all of Fashion Week by staging vehicles in front of the runways’ new home, Lincoln Center. The company’s partner taxis last year shuttled Vogue editors around. This year, it’s running a VIP shuttle, and constant shuttles on Fashion’s Night Out for shoppers looking to get from, say, Fifth Avenue down to the Meatpacking District.

5. Get Your Product Out There.
Two words: goody bags. It’s true that swag bags can be overrated, and some marketing gurus warn against including your products in freebie or sample bags. But when it’s done right – and actually reaches your target audience – it can have a big impact. What could be better than getting your product into the hands of someone who will buy it again?

For designers, it’s a tricky thing, and giveaways are typically reserved for celebrities or product placement. But across the beauty industry, demonstrations and samples are still king.

Your brand might not be internationally known, but you can take some inspiration from the big dogs in the kinds of freebies and promotions that actually draw a crowd. For instance, L’Oreal takes the direct approach, thinking no one’s afraid of taking a free sample. A L’Oreal car will be cruising around Fashion Week and Lincoln Center giving out free Elnett samples and touch-ups. On Fashion’s Night Out, it will be parked in SoHo for maximum exposure. Chanel is doing free manicures all Friday night in the Meatpacking District, and consumers can get a runway-ready crimpy hairstyle at Cynthia Rowley in the West Village.

6. Get a DJ.
Not just any DJ. A famous DJ.

This week includes quite a slate of trend-forward music, with DJ Alexandra Richards spinning at Sephora to promote YSL’s Rouge Flame lipstick, DJ Charlotte Kemp Muehl and Sean Lennon are playing at Mabelliene, and DJ Leigh Lezark is taking her place as the new face of the DKNY campaign. Get the hint? Drumming up some beats is buzz-worthy – you’ll get press before the week even starts. And it’s not just of the bloggy variety: Vanity Fair’s September issue devoted a significant amount of editorial space to Fashion’s Night Out, including an event guide.

7. Get Someone Famous for Your Event.
It might seem an unlikely pairing, but when Jersey Shore’s Vinny Guadagnino is at C.O. Bigelow’s in New York City on Friday night, he won’t just be delivering grooming tips: He’ll be drawing in a lot of foot traffic and driving sales. Big fist pump.

In the same vein, Maybelline is using models Erin Wasson, Jessica White, and Lisalla Montenegro to judge a catwalk-walking contest. If you’re looking for a consumerist, but not necessarily highbrow or uber-opinion leader crowd, consider this tactic for drawing crowds.

8. Sponsor an Emerging Designer.
You may lack a Mercedes-sized marketing budget, but you can still get exposure and cultural clout by linking arms with an emerging designer and sponsoring his or her show. Out of the deal the designer will get the financial ability to put on a great show and you’ll get your brand cited alongside theirs. The arrangement will also give you a nice presence during the runway show.

With the more established brands, it’s easy to know what you’re buying into. With smaller designers, you have to really do your research.

“You have to pick the right partner that matches your own brand’s DNA. It has to be a brand that relates to the fashion industry,” says Baratte of Hello Pasta. “I was a little shocked to see another fast food company sponsoring fashion week in the past. It has to make sense in terms of the branding and the positioning.”

He says it’s trickier for brands outside the industry (or the industries of health, beauty, design, or healthy foods) to find matches that make sense. But if you have a good fit, sponsoring an emerging designer is a nice foot-in-the door for Fashion Week. Ideeli, which is sponsoring Fashion Week as a whole this year online, started its relationship with Fashion Week by working with a couple small designers. Now the site has partnerships with a number of high-end brands.

“That’s my advice, to try and catch that wave, find the emerging, rather than going right to major sponsorships,” says Rosenthal. “When we did that, we could see the recognition, and the approval of our brand partners. And that’s our whole goal: We are sending the message to our partners that we are a big part of the fashion community.”

BY JO PIAZZA

as seen on gotham-magazine.com

Laurent Lesort, Gregory Baratte, Nicholas Barthelemy

Back in the summer of 2009, three friends met regularly for lunch in Midtown Manhattan. During these weekly meetings, they searched for something fresh, healthy and affordable, but they never found exactly what they were looking for.

So the trio—longtime restaurateurs Laurent Lesort and Nicolas Barthelemy, and luxury retail veteran Gregory Baratte—came up with their own fastcasual dining concept. One year later, Hello Pasta is here, with leases signed and recipes perfected in the home kitchens of Lesort (chief food officer of the new company) and Barthelemy (chief operation officer). Diners find expertly cooked pastas paired with impeccable sauces for eating in or for takeout via convenient containers reminiscent of Chinese delivery cartons.

Chief marketing officer Baratte, who worked at Louis Vuitton for 10 years, the last few as senior director of e-services for LVMH, carried his experiences there into his new venture. “The lesson that I learned from Louis Vuitton was to always pay attention to quality,” he says. That attention shows. Each of Hello
Pasta’s 10 sauces is all-natural and locally sourced, with organic or low-sodium options also available. The pasta itself comes in a choice of organic, whole wheat or gluten free—and everything is under $10.
“I would never open a fast-food place and serve burgers that are disgusting,” says Lesort. “We love good food.”

With four current locations and more planned for next year, Hello Pasta is similar to the portable pasta that has been making headway in the trio’s native France for the past few years. Though the friends realize they’ve borrowed a native dish from their European neighbors, they insist the French can do pasta as well as any Italian. “We love pasta,” says Baratte with a laugh, “and we make it very, very well.”

Hello Pasta, 649 Lexington Ave.; 708 Third Ave.; 125 Maiden Lane; 1400 Broadway, 212-557- 2782; hellopasta.com

PHOTOGRAPH BY JC DHIEN (HELLO PASTA MEN)

WEDNESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 1, 2010 – PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, September 1, 2010 – This year’s hot accessory at M.A.C. & Milk’s New York Fashion Week is Hello Pasta, a new model in fast casual dining. Even New York City’s fashionistas have to eat and what could be more stylish and delicious than perfectly cooked pasta with all natural sauces in the ever-chic white box with green accents.

Hello Pasta has been at the forefront of a new fast casual dining trend that is sweeping Manhattan. Their first store, located at 649 Lexington Avenue at 55th Street, has received great media and industry buzz, and 3 new locations are planned to open in coming weeks (3rd Avenue and 44th, Maiden Lane and Water Street, 38th Street and Broadway) so natch, it was the perfect fit for M.A.C. and Milk’s Fashion Week. As the official backstage caterer of M.A.C. & Milk Fashion Week from September 9, 2010 to September 16, 2010, Hello Pasta will feed models, backstage crew and fashion industry’s V.I.P.s (guests, editors, buyers and celebrities) with just the right amount of complex carbs to keep this sleek audience sated during the hectic pace of the shows.

Hello Pasta will serve two types of health-conscious, organic pastas, with a choice of Californian-made gluten-free penne pasta and an organic whole wheat fusilli pasta imported from Italy. Each selected pasta will be paired with a choice of four all-natural, low sodium, vegetarian sauces, including Primavera, Pesto, Pomodoro and a special “Sauce of the Day,” chosen especially for M.A.C. & Milk Fashion Week. The pasta will be served in the brand’s attractive and unique to-go box, allowing all those attending the presentations at Milk Studios to enjoy Hello Pasta without fear of any unsightly stains on their front row attire.

Founders Gregory Baratte, Nicolas Barthelemy and Laurent Lesort, all fashionable Frenchmen and pasta lovers, think that Hello Pasta and M.A.C. & Milk Fashion Week is a perfect match. “Our pasta offerings at Hello Pasta are delicious, healthy, chic and fun – a perfect complement to the fashioncentric attendees at M.A.C. & Milk Fashion Week,” states Hello Pasta Chief of Marketing, Gregory Baratte, who was formerly the Senior Director of Marketing for fashion powerhouse Louis Vuitton. Adds Chief Operating Officer Nicolas Barthelemy, “Hello Pasta was designed for New Yorkers on-the-go looking for a healthy and tasty option to the usual high calorie and high sodium lunch and dinner suspects in the marketplace. We think the M.A.C. & Milk Fashion Week guests are the perfect target audience for our product.”
M.A.C. & Milk debuted last year as part of Fall Fashion Week in September 2009. John Demsey, the group president of Estée Lauder, and Mazdack Rassi, the founder and creator of Milk Studios, created the concept in order to give young designers a chance to showcase their work.

“We jumped at the chance to work with Hello Pasta,” stated Mazdack Rassi. “We looked for a young, modern, emerging brand that is health conscious and reflects the tastes and lifestyles of our guests and Hello Pasta ideally fit the bill.”

M.A.C. & Milk offers attendees creative and innovative presentations at a hip downtown venue, located on West 15th Street.

About Hello Pasta
Hello Pasta opened their first of four locations at the beginning of July at 649 Lexington between 54th and 55th. The company plans on opening three more locations in New York City by September. Hello Pasta is open seven days a week from 11:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. for lunch, dinner and afternoon indulgences. For delivery, please call 212.55PASTA or order on hellopasta.com. More information on Hello Pasta can be found at hellopasta.com or facebook/hellopasta and twitter/hellopasta.

MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2010

as seen on www.trendcentral.com

Over the past few decades, the term “fast food” has undergone a reputational decline from the nostalgia of drive-in burgers and malt shop shakes to the horrifying reality of Supersize Me and Double Downs. Until now, a quick bite might have obligated us to a not so quick hour at the gym, which is why we (and our sore legs) are applauding the opening of a new batch of healthy restaurant chains.

Hello Pasta: We’re happy to say ‘hello’ to one of the first restaurants in America that offers fresh and organic pasta to-go. Founders and longtime friends Laurent Lesort, Nicolas Barthelemy and Gregory Baratte shared a promise to one day pool their cumulative experience in hospitality and marketing to create something spectacular. Lucky for us, the resulting Hello Pasta lets its customers enjoy a fresher helping of desk-side semolina than would brown-bagging the previous night’s leftovers. This unique concept, which also has a charitable bent, allows diners to select their desired pasta shape and type,ranging from vegan to gluten-free, and then add sauce from an array of choices. Hello Pasta also offers green salads and appealing low-calorie desserts. Last month’s grand opening in New York was an absolute success, paving the way for three new locations in the city to come…The only downside is that our office has yet to install a nap pod for when the carbs kick in.

Stephanie’s: The resumes of Stephanie’s founders Mike Roberts and Mike Donahue include time spent under the Golden Arches, so we assumed the worst regarding the health factor of their new concept. Currently named for backer Steve Sidwell’s daughter, Stephanie’s (working name) is set to debut in early 2011, with upwards of 250 locations opening within the next five years. Like most other chains, the goal is to deliver the food fast and cheaply, but unlike most of its predecessors, Stephanie’s will place an emphasis on nutrition. With nary a Big Mac in sight, the menu will include items such as apple cinnamon steel cut oats for breakfast and smoked-chicken sweet-pea soup for lunch and dinner. A far cry from the drive-thru aesthetic of Mickey D’s, the decor plans include grass parking lots, rooftop herb gardens, fresh flowers on the tables, and biodegradable cutlery. If anyone from Stephanie’s is reading this, may we suggest also incorporating some off-the-wall plants?

Otarian: We were always taught not to judge a book by its cover, but in this case, it’s perfectly acceptable. Otarian is the first restaurant we know of to calculate the carbon footprint of every item and then put that information on the package of every meal they serve. So, go ahead and judge away, because founder Radhika Oswal ensures that the carbon footprint of her food is such that even No Impact Man would approve. With a menu featuring vegetarian and locally grown food, she has created a dining experience that would put most other so-called “green” restaurants to shame. Even with its ecological focus, the menu is packed with flavor that can satisfy even the most extreme carnivore. From the napkins to the cash register, every detail of the restaurant lets us know that we are saving the environment, and how. And if that’s done by eating a veggie Tandoori wrap for lunch, then we’re happy to play Captain Planet.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2010 - BY JODIGABER

as seen on foodielink.com

I am so excited to share a new, healthy option for lunch and dinner in New York City. Please give a warm welcome to Hello Pasta. The first of four locations opened in July on Lexington Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets. This month, two more locations will open at 708 Third Avenue (at 44th Street) and 125 Maiden Lane (at Water Street). In September, look for Hello Pasta at 1400 Broadway (at 38th Street).

I recently walked by the restaurant near closing time. I was on the phone, heading to 57th Street to catch a bus and the words “gluten-free” caught my eye. In an instant, I ended my phone conversation and walked inside to pick up a menu. Then I saw more of my favorite words: organic and vegan.

Available in small and large sizes, the pasta is made-to-order and many cost under $10. The sauces are low-sodium, all-natural, locally sourced and made with organic ingredients. Seasonal soups and salads are also on the menu, as well as dessert options and Nespresso coffee and cappuccino.
Laurent Lesort, one of three co-founders, said, “Our goal is to serve a remarkable product in a modern and clean environment at a low price.” The other partners, Gregory Baratte and Nicolas Barthelemy, share Lesort’s long history in the hospitality and marketing industries and together the three are poised to change the way New Yorkers view pasta. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Mr. Baratte offered, “We want to be the Starbucks or Pinkberry of pasta.”
Hello Pasta is open seven days a week from 11:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. for lunch, dinner and snacks. Please take note: the Lexington Avenue location is closed on Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer; weekend hours resume after Labor Day. Wi-fi is available at all locations. (It just keeps getting better and better!). Now, let’s hope we don’t have to wait on long lines to eat this healthy and delicious pasta.

You’ll recall that two fast-food–pasta chains-to-be were set to do battle on Lexington this month. Well, Laurent Lesort’s Hello Pasta, which aims to be the “Chipotle of pasta,” opened yesterday (Midtown Lunch had a first look), and as you can see in this photo, there’s quite a line outside of it today thanks to an 88-cent–pasta promotion that goes till 8 p.m. Hopefully this place has a smoother launch than the last big midtown concept, pizza in a cone. The second location opens next month at 125 Maiden Lane.

Hello Pasta, 649 Lexington, nr. 55th St.; 212-557-2782

MIDTOWN LUNCH: Your First Look at the Now Open Hello Pasta

THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010 - BY EISELEY TAUGINAS

as seen on blackbookmag.com

Laurent Lesort’s Italian fast food concept Hello Pasta is up and running on Lexington Ave. As a special incentive to try pasta on the fly, they’re offering a heaping plateful for 88 cents until 8pm tonight (with a coupon). It’s like a salad bar, but a pasta bar. Or like Chopt for carb-cravers. Even if you can’t make it tonight, it’s still well worth visiting, and there’s other free food possibilities on the horizon.
The new, speedy concept lets you choose between farfalle, conchiglie, fusilli or gluten-free penne and gives you the freedom to top ‘em with one of many sauce choices (Pomodoro, Arrabiatta, Primavera, Bolognese, Al Fungi, Salmon Tarragon, Sausage & Pea, Pesto, Tuna Provencal, Chicken Tuscan, Carbonara). Prices range from $6.95 to $12.25. A personal favorite is the Bolognese (boring but classic) with conchiglie…worth the wait. Also, pop onto their website and enter to win free pasta for a year.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010 – BY AMY CAO

as seen on midtownlunch.com

The day has come! The first (of many) Hello Pastas opened on Lexington btw. 54+55th this morning. As they promised, it’s kinda like the Chipotle of pasta, with a similar set-up to make for maximum ordering efficiency. You queue up, pick your pasta (choice between farfalle, conchiglie, fusilli, whole wheat fusilli, or gluten free penne), sauce, size (14 oz. “Handy” vs. 19 oz. “Handful”), and you’re out! The checkout counter also reminds me of the sweets section at every Pret A Manger counter stacked with last minute temptations in case hot pasta on a sweltering city day brings you down. For those hesitant to commit, don’t forget there’s an 8coupons deal for TOMORROW that gets you any pasta with any sauce for just 88 cents! Easy to hate aspiring empire-builders, but even 88 cent lunches are hard to resist. For those who can’t fathom eating steaming fusilli bolognese in this weather (like I am right now), they offer cold pasta salads and regular green salads too.
Check out our first taste, and the menu, after the jump…

It’s just their first day – and I was their third customer – so it’s too early to review officially. I think the price for a Chinese takeout container of fusilli bolognese was reasonable ($7.95) considering it’s in Midtown East. Nowhere else around here can you get made-to-order pasta unless you get it from a restaurant, which would be more expensive! And while it’s no Babbo, the pasta sure as hell beats anything I’ve ever made. Plus, they’ve got 11 different sauces to choose from for those who want to go nuts and switch things up.

We’ll be back tomorrow for 88 cent day. Hope to see you there!

Hello Pasta 649 Lexington btw. 54+55th, 212-557-2782