1 week Ago By John Wenzel
Back in 2005, when Garrett Brizendine was a marketing student at Johnson & Wales University, he adopted the Anthony’s Pizza & Pasta store at East 29th Avenue and Roslyn Street as his own. “I lived in President’s Hall at the corner of 17th and Quebec, about five minutes away,” Brizendine said, “so that Anthony’s was our staple.” The delightfully chewy, New York-style crust, gooey cheese and tart sauce made him a lifelong fan, as it had already done for countless Denverites, many of whom tried the famous pizza style — and its enormous triangular slices — for the first time at Anthony’s.
Now in its 40th year — the business was founded in 1984 by Henry Mann — Anthony’s remains one of the most successful and longest-running food concepts in a state known for its fast-casual pioneering. Sales last year hit $15.2 million for the entire brand, which counts 350 or so employees and 19 locations, and are forecast to hit $16.
3 million in revenue this year. Brizendine didn’t know any of that in 2021, however, when his beloved Central Park location was put up for sale during the pandemic by the former owners. He had already been looking for a restaurant to invest in, he noted, and was happy to snap up the corporate-owned location.
It was far from his first investment, but it was his first chance to run a pizza joint. It also set the stage to buy up the whole business in February from owner John Le Bel, who had spent the last two decades expanding the chain’s locations with founder Mann and Michael Toltz, a former vice president at Denver’s Stellini Foods. Brizendine’s current financial partners are Andrew Rauch of Fort Collins’ FR Companies, a real-estate investment group, and long-time Anthony’s operations lead Jeremy Betlach.
Together, the group oversees five wholly-owned corporate locations and 14 franchises, all run out of an office in Cherry Creek. Brizendine and his partners had the advantage of buying their first Anthony’s during the pandemic, which reduced the price of the 20-year-old Central Park store to $150,000. Sales were still strong, but he felt he could improve upon its performance and grow the customer base.
(Prior to this venture, Brizendine had worked in the world of automotive marketing.) Watching the original, two-story Anthony’s location, just off California Street along downtown’s 16th Street Mall, close during the pandemic also reminded him of the alarming challenges restaurateurs were facing. Now, the ownership group is looking to expand — and by a lot.
Brizendine said he’d like to have 200 or so locations in Colorado and elsewhere, with some as franchises and some as wholly owned locations. They’re looking to Denver-founded fast-casual trailblazer Chipotle for lessons. But he doesn’t want to affect the brand’s proven stability in the process.
There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of new pizza places that have opened in the past decade offering high-quality food and trendy styles, like Neopolitan, Detroit, Tavern and more. Brizendine orders his competitors’ products regularly for employee lunches, naming Audrey Jane’s Pizza Garage in Boulder, Marco’s Coal Fired and SliceWorks, both in Denver, among recent samplings. “Getting into a space that provides some good competition makes me nervous and excited at the same time,” he said.
“We’re going to always stick to our original, thin-crust recipe created by Henry Mann, but we can find new ways to service the customer,” including limited-time offerings, “flare” on salads and different methods of ordering, he said. Anthony’s also endures because it doesn’t face the same perils as some single-owner businesses, such as , which closed earlier this year . “The franchisees have been part of the Anthony’s business for 15 years, and sales overall continue to go up,” he said.
Anthony’s locations are spread out along the Front Range from Littleton to Brighton and Golden to Aurora, with a few further out in Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. “It’s not a flash-in-the-pan product, and the revenue’s there to support our deal.” Brizendine admits his love of Anthony’s may seem cloaked in business-investment language — and certainly, it’s a big purchase (he declined to name the overall sale price).
But it’s one borne of personal experience and passion, he said. His mix of business savvy and commitment to familiar recipes and techniques bodes well for Anthony’s future. He pointed to a in partnership with of Golden (Brizendine lives there with his wife and kid), with one pair for each of Anthony’s 19 locations.
It’s part of a larger promotion for October as National Pizza Month, including food deals. “When we acquired the business, it was probably a little disconcerting to the (owners),” he said of the former group, led by entrepreneur Le Bel, who served as Anthony’s former CEO. “They had done things a certain way for so long, and here we are coming in and taking it over.
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“But our plan is to hire and build a foundation that will not crumble. We’ve dedicated ourselves to about two years of not opening new locations (minus the , which makes 19 overall), and are hiring on new people to look at our franchises and catering options.” An expansion would proceed rapidly once launched, with a strategic plan to open the 200 or so new locations in about five years.
“I quit a lucrative position as a marketing executive to take this risk. I put my family’s future into this thing,” he said. “It’s an ambitious plan, but it doesn’t happen unless we make sure we are as solid as we can be right now.
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