A story of Flagship Store Design: How MODALiTA brought Minuto Bauli to life in NYC
How is it like to design a Flagship Store for an iconic brand’s food business?
Designing a flagship store for an iconic brand in a city like New York is a compelling yet somehow intimidating mission.
Everything needs to be perfect. You must respect the brand’s vision and identity, optimize both aesthetics and customer flow, you need to be consistent and memorable at the same time. Thus, when Bauli chose Union Square for the U.S. debut of its latest 1 Minuto venture, they needed a partner who could deliver on all fronts.
Being chosen by Bauli to create their new flagship store was a source of pride for MODALiTA, but also a huge responsibility.
MODALiTA handled in fact every inch of the custom interior: refrigerated displays, workspaces, finishes, and layout. The result? A space that feels like Italy but works at the speed of New York.
Let’s take a closer look at how it came to life.
The Project at a Glance: Designing the Minuto Bauli Experience
Bauli: A 100 years family story
The story of Bauli began over 100 years ago in Verona, with the dream of a young pastry chef named Ruggero Bauli. Driven by vision and relentless passion, Ruggero mastered the art of baking in a small shop where he discovered the secrets of traditional pastry. Most notably, the use of natural sourdough, still at the heart of Bauli's recipes today.
Between 1922, when he opened his first bakery, and 1950, he survived a dramatic shipwreck in Argentina, returned to Italy, made his shop famous, and took the bold step of industrializing the production of Pandoro, the iconic holiday cake that would forever define the Bauli name.
Today, Bauli is a dynamic, forward-thinking brand that continues to bring moments of sweetness to tables around the world. All of this, of course, while staying true to its roots as a family business.
Minuto Bauli is the latest of their inventions and is built around a simple but powerful concept. A single product—a brioche made with Pandoro dough—filled on demand with creams, spreads, and toppings. It’s playful, indulgent, and unmistakably Italian.
The first location opened in Verona, quickly followed by Milan, Florence, Vienna, and last but not least, the flagship store in NYC. With the Broadway location near Union Square, the brand is aiming at a cosmopolitan audience, while staying rooted in Italian craftsmanship.
Custom Interiors by MODALiTA
From display cases to prep counters, MODALiTA curated and delivered the full interior setup.
Everything was built to combine visual appeal with functionality, maximizing both product visibility and operational efficiency.
Designing a flagship store in the U.S. requires more than good taste. You need a team that knows how to navigate timelines, building codes, and real-world constraints. However, you also need expertise in branding and communication, since such a store must align with the brand and speak the same language as its target customers.
That’s where we come in: peak-quality design, delivered globally, with attention to every detail. Attention that we always put in every partnership with our selected clients.
Our Partner: TeknéItalia
Design aside, no flagship store is complete without high-performance refrigeration and equipment.
Generally speaking, top level Made in Italy equipment brands offer an excellent balance between aesthetic appeal and technical efficiency. A mix that clearly plays a particularly pivotal role for flagship stores. These kinds of stores must in fact represent the brand in the best way possible, but also they need to seamlessly serve hordes of customers during their peak hours.
That’s why we worked side by side with TeknéItalia, our long-term, trusted partner and supplier.
They supplied custom refrigerated elements tailored for the unique demands of Minuto Bauli.
And as always, their solutions granted us and Bauli visual consistency, strong reliability, unique style, and excellent ease of use. The synergy between MODALiTA and TeknéItalia helped make the NYC flagship store iconic and functional at the same time.
Ready to Design Your Own Flagship Store in the US?
Launching a flagship store in the U.S. (especially in a crazy, vibrant and competitive market like New York) takes more than vision. It takes the right team and expertise.
MODALiTA helps Italian brands bring their ideas to life in the US every day. And we do that with all the precision, style and experience we got.
But even more importantly, we don’t see ourselves as just restaurant or food store designers. We rather aim to be your partner, and a loyal ambassador of Italian food culture in the US.
So, if you're planning your next move, let's talk. We’re ready when you are!