Michael Lastoria, co-founder of the local fast-casual restaurant chain &pizza, has some big plans for 2016, and he's just shared them with DC Inno.
The Washington, D.C.-area restaurant, which serves fresh and unique personalized pizzas in a Chipotle-esque ordering format, will be opening eight new locations, entering a new market and expanding into the bar business with a concept called "&bar," Lastoria said. These new locations include the opening of storefronts in the Chinatown, Georgetown, Columbia Heights and Barracks Row neighborhoods of D.C..&pizza currently boasts 13 storefronts.
Backed by a crucial growth year in 2015—during which the company grew its brand and became a more recognizable District commodity—the &pizza braintrust now sees 2016 as a true expansion year.
Lastoria declined to comment on his company's revenue or the specific new market, outside of D.C., that &pizza would soon dive into. He did, however, reassure me that it would be located on the East Coast. Five of the eight aforementioned new locations will be launched in the D.C.-area, while the other three will be part of new cities.
In retrospect&pizza was able to build a steady and loyal customer base by, among other things, designing a strong, passionate brand and advertising strategy aimed at D.C.'s "underground pulse," Lastoria explained. Interestingly, &pizza has largely been self-funded to date; while fellow D.C.-area restaurant chains sweetgreen and Cava raised a combined $79 million last year, &pizza has never raised venture capital.
Lastoria said he feels fortunate to have kept ownership of the majority of the company alongside his fellow executives, because it enables flexibility and design autonomy. Prior to launching &pizza, he started an advertising tech company in New York City, which was later sold to a private equity firm. Later, Lastoria was involved in the establishment of JWalk, where he remains a founding partner. JWalk is a firm that labels itself as a "creative agency" focused on hospitality and fashion. &pizza is Lastoria's 4th startup.
Founded in 2012, with the first &pizza on H Street, Lastoria said he wanted the birthplace of his restaurant empire to be in the center of a vibrant, high energy town, full of "young passionate artists" that was also home to "early adopters," or people who would be up for trying a restaurant that is unconventional.
Beyond pizza, &pizza has worked to expand their product portfolio to include spring water, wine (&wine), homemade craft sodas, tea (&tea) and a growing clothing line (&swag), over the last four years. And a new version of the &pizza mobile app for direct ordering via smartphone is also in the works. What's more, the team is currently exploring how to make &beer a possibility; because clearly beer pairs well with pizza.
This effort is not absent of a directive; rather everything is carefully planned and enacted by co-founders Lastoria and Steve Salis to make their pizza joint more of a lifestyle brand and less of a competitor to the likes of Pizza Hut. And that mission is something in which both fast-casual rival sweetgreen and Cava have undoubtedly succeeded.
Sweetgreen, for example, has carefully constructed a dedicated music festival that aligns the sweetgreen brand with their customers and their respective preferred music tastes, every summer. In 2015, the Sweetlife festival offered performances from a mix of artists like rapper Kendrick Lamar and indie-funk musician Allen Stone. Investors in sweetgreen include Revolution LLC, Swan & Legend Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price. The fast-casual salad restaurant has attracted more than $75 million in investments since being founded in 2007.
In the battle to become a dominant fast-casual franchise, it appears that branding and masterful advertising is simply a requirement.
Future
&Pizza's bar venture will be called &bar. It will pair together &pizza with alcohol beverages and other menu options at select locations. The first &bar will be located in Foggy Bottom, said Lastoria, and open by end of year. Ground has already been broken for &bar. In these locations you can expect a full restaurant and bar, not just the option to order a beer or cocktail on the side."An &beer is definitely on the horizon ," Lastoria said between cordial laughs.
Big plans are in the works, indeed. Expect to see a lot more from &pizza in 2016.
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