From Math Student to Pastry Pioneer: Bringing Pastéis de Nata to NYC

The Portugal-born pastry start-up Nata NYC has quietly settled on Waverly Place, a move that is already putting the pastel de nata—Lisbon’s iconic custard tart—into the daily routine of students and tech workers in lower Manhattan.

Why This Matters

• Brand Portugal on display: Every cup of Delta coffee and each tart sold abroad lifts the profile of Portuguese food exporters.

• Supply-chain opening: Manuel Portugal imports several tonnes of Portuguese butter and citrus peel monthly, creating new orders for small dairies in the Centro region.

• Diaspora hiring window: The venture plans to recruit 15 bilingual staff this year, favouring applicants with EU/US work permits.

• Blueprint for others: A step-by-step case on how to navigate US health codes and NYC’s fierce commercial-lease market.

From Equations to Custard

Manuel Portugal, a 23-year-old Lisbon native, arrived at New York University in 2021 dreaming of a career in quantitative finance. A pandemic-era internship at an NYU start-up lab exposed him to the city’s gate-kept food scene. By mid-2024 he had shelved derivatives in favour of egg yolks, spending his final semester commuting between Lisbon test kitchens and Brooklyn co-packers.

A Recipe that Survived the Atlantic

Preserving the tart’s signature flavour turned into a chemistry exercise. US wheat flours carry up to 20% more gluten, forcing Manuel to ship European-milled alternatives at three times the domestic cost. Sugar was trimmed by 15 g per serving, while extra lemon zest was introduced after consumer trials with NYU’s Asian cultural clubs signalled a preference for brighter notes over cinnamon. The result is a custard that satisfies Portuguese purists but mirrors the lighter profile of Macau-style egg tarts familiar to Chinese diners.

Betting on NYU’s Asian Community

Roughly 52% of walk-ins so far have Asian surnames, according to point-of-sale data shared with investors. That demographic shows higher repeat-purchase rates and an average ticket of $11.80, almost double a standard coffee-and-doughnut order in the neighbourhood. The location—steps from Washington Square Park—puts 21,000 Chinese, Korean and Filipino students within a five-minute walk.

Money, Leases and the Flour Problem

Seed funding combines €350,000 from Portuguese angels and an undisclosed cheque from a US hospitality fund. Securing the 37-sqm storefront required a ten-month negotiation; landlords in Greenwich Village typically demand two years of audited accounts, something unattainable for a pre-revenue venture. Manuel leveraged personal guarantees from investors and prepaid eight months’ rent—roughly the cost of a T2 apartment in central Lisbon.

Flour continues to fly business-class: each 400-kg pallet leaves Leixões every Friday, lands at JFK on Sunday and arrives in the Lower East Side prep kitchen by dawn Monday. Import tariffs remain modest under the EU-US Trade and Technology Council’s 2025 accord, but logistics eat into margins, leaving retail price at $4.50 per tart.

Growth Map to 2028

Short term, the team wants to lift output from 350 to 500 tarts a day by June and crack the 1,000-unit mark before the year ends. Expansion will favour neighbourhoods with high Asian footfall—Flushing, Jersey City and Boston’s Chinatown—as well as at least one shop on the West Coast. Five branches are pencilled in by January 2028, at which point Manuel intends to seek a strategic sale or a Series A round.

What This Means for Residents

Portugal-based suppliers of dairy, citrus peel, paper packaging and Delta coffee capsules have just gained a stable US customer, potentially widening their export slate. Food entrepreneurs eyeing international markets can study Nata NYC’s paperwork stack—FDA labelling, NYC Health Department inspections and lease terms—as a template. For Portuguese students considering a semester abroad, the store doubles as a tangible reminder that home-grown products can command premium prices when properly localized.

Travellers heading to New York may also discover that a taste of Lisbon now sits two blocks from the Broadway-Lafayette subway stop—useful knowledge when saudade hits. Back home, the news signals something else: global appetite for Portuguese classics remains strong, and with the right tweaks, a small Lisbon recipe can indeed conquer the most competitive food city on the planet.