Upstarts: Go Roma Is Filling the Void

Go Roma jumps into the fast-casual fray with Italian fare and a hospitality-driven approach.

By Maya Norris, Managing Editor -- Chain Leader, 7/1/2006

Industry veterans from Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and Dallas-based Brinker International are putting their collective experience to the test. They have stepped out on their own with Go Roma Italian Kitchen, a fast-casual chain that they are preparing for nationwide expansion.

President David Wolfgram, former president of Corner Bakery; Chief Operating Officer Yorgo Koutsogiorgas, former senior vice president of Maggiano’s Little Italy; Executive Chef Russell Bry, former vice president and executive chef of Lettuce; and Partner Jeff Drake, former regional director for Brinker, spent a year researching and developing Go Roma before launching it in Warrenville, Ill., in 2004. According to Wolfgram, the fast-casual Italian concept sets itself apart in a segment crowded with Mexican, bakery-cafe and sandwich concepts, while high-quality Italian cuisine, along with good service, is usually relegated to casual dining.

“There is an opportunity for Go Roma in quick-casual Italian,” Wolfgram says. “We feel our quality of food and price value and the hospitality experience all come together to create an exceptional value proposition for the guest.”

Italian Essentials
Go Roma features appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, artisan pizzas, pastas and Italian specialties. Best-selling dishes include Smoked Chicken & Pear Salad, $7.59, with goat cheese, grape tomatoes, walnuts, dried cranberries, baby greens and balsamic vinaigrette; Margherita pizza, $6.29 half plank, $11.99 full plank, with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato sauce; and Tilapia Piccatta, $8.99, sauteed tilapia, lemon, capers, garlic and white-wine sauce, served with sauteed spinach.

Besides the food, the company also takes pride in its service. Dishes are delivered to guests in eight minutes or less, while servers and managers float around the restaurant checking on customers, refilling water glasses and bussing tables. Cashiers, trained as both hosts and servers, are familiar with the recipes so they can discuss the menu with guests, including those with food allergies. And the POS system helps the kitchen staff prepare a multicourse meal, so a customer with time to spare has the option of receiving his or her appetizer, entree and dessert separately.

But for the most part, Go Roma is targeting customers with busy lifestyles: young professionals and families with young children. So the company is looking for A locations in a mix of residential and business areas with a college-educated population. It prefers endcaps in strip malls or shopping centers with other fast-casual concepts like Qdoba or Potbelly and near movie theatres.

Fueling Growth
Go Roma has opened three more units since 2004 in Chicago, Northbrook and Deer Park, Ill. It expects to ring up $8.7 million this year with an average unit volume of $1.6 million.

The company will open three more units by year-end in Lincolnshire and Oak Brook, Ill.; and Merrillville, Ind. It plans 10 new company units a year in the Midwest for the next five years, with funding from cash flow and GESD Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based private-equity firm.

Go Roma will also grow through franchising. It expects four or five franchised units to open in 2007 in California and then 10 a year thereafter across the country.

It expects to have 100 company and franchised units open nationwide by 2010.