Ever since Chipotle teamed up with Frasca owners Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson to roll out a fast-casual version of Pizzeria Locale, their original Boulder eatery, we've known it would only be a matter of time before the whole concept went national. After all, Stuckey and Mackinnon-Patterson have the know-how to create great Italian fare and Chipotle already has the infrastructure in place to manufacture multiple stores with almost the wave of a hand. With two fast-casual Pizzeria Locale locations in Denver, one on Broadway and the other in West Highland, serving as test labs for turning out high-quality Neapolitan pies at reasonable prices, the team is now taking the show on the road.
There's already a location in the works for Kansas City, which is expected to open in July, and the company just announced that Cincinnati is the next target. A new Pizzeria Locale will open at Sycamore Crossing, a shopping center in a northern suburb of the Ohio city. Residents can expect the same menu of traditional pizzas cooked in a custom-made Italian oven, as well as fresh-sliced prosciutto and wine on tap blended by master sommelier Stuckey.
No plans have been announced for future growth, but it certainly won't come anywhere near the 200 or so new locations that Chipotle could open by the end of 2015. Doubling the current number of Pizzeria Locales seems like a reasonable goal for now.