Driven largely by his passion for food, Antonello Dato founded Burrata House 2019. To help scale it, the company launched a franchise system, with Dato hoping to find more entrepreneurs who appreciate Italian cuisine.
For most of his career, Antonello Dato worked in the financial sector. But when he and his wife moved from Italy to California so she could pursue an opportunity, Dato decided to make a change as well.
A self-described foodie, Dato had a great interest in dining, despite not having a culinary background. As he began considering the restaurant industry, Dato also realized few concepts incorporated fresh Italian burrata cheese, one of his favorites.
Those factors led him to open Burrata House in Los Angeles in June 2019. Rather than going for a full-service Italian restaurant, though, he settled on a fast-casual model.
“We knew that we could go high-end, but we decided that we wanted to democratize access to premium Italian foods with a low price point,” Dato said. “So, we looked at the most common things Italians eat for lunch, such as sandwiches, pastas, salad and charcuterie boards. They’re all super common in Italy. We decided to use those items and make it fast with stellar ingredients.”
The next few years were a mix of surviving the coronavirus pandemic while fine-tuning recipes. What wasn’t part of the discussion in those early years, though, was the idea of franchising. Dato said considerations began after some struggles in growth strategizing.
“We realized that while we had our business model solid, we didn’t know the real estate aspect very much because we weren’t from L.A.,” Dato said. “We ended up trusting brokers and I feel we had been misguided in some cases. We had cracked the code on product and customer experience, but we just didn’t know the right physical expansion plan.”
What helped lead them to franchising as a solution was partnering with Earl Enterprises, which also works with Café Hollywood, Chicken Guy and Planet Hollywood on scaling efforts. Dato said in addition to benefiting from access to entrepreneurs who know their markets, franchised locations also have a greater level of quality control.
Antonello Dato, the CEO and founder of Burrata House
“One of our biggest limitations was the actual trusting of teams,” Dato said. “We realized that whenever we let go of a bit of supervision, things weren’t going exactly the way we want to. So, it’s a solution to spreading ourselves geographically while also maintaining consistency. With franchising, we like the idea of selecting the community builders and business owners who have skin in the game to help us maintain that quality.”
To ensure franchisees have success in their operations, Dato said work has been done to simplify the concept with a streamlined menu that’s easy to execute. While running a store may be efficient, though, Dato added the brand will be selective in choosing franchisees. It won’t, however, necessarily be based on experience.
“If they have a background in it, it would be ideal,” Dato said. “But we care more about their passion and interaction with their work in the community. We want them to have a good understanding of the market they want to serve. That’s more important than their work with food.”
This also means Dato will be looking more toward single-unit deals rather than multi-unit partnerships.
“Multi-unit agreements sound good because it will achieve faster growth, but it will entirely depend on the case,” Dato said. “We will always consider them, but we’re also going to be careful when it comes to who wants to do it, what their internal structure is and how they operate.
“Independent operators going after a single unit are ideal because those are who really get invested,” Dato said. “Even though they’re not investing as much in money, to them, it’s still meaningful and they will fight tooth and nail for their success. I think that the first generation of franchisees for us will be more targeted toward them.”
Despite being established in Los Angeles, Dato said he will be on the lookout for entrepreneurs on the East Coast.
“I’ve had a lot of experiences on the East Coast where there’s a component of the Italian demographic layered in and Italian food culture is a staple,” Dato said. “What I found was that the West Coast has way less of that component. So, we’re licensed in more than 30 states and we want to look at those markets familiar with the cuisine. I would say that gravitates east.”
The goal for the brand, which has three locations open in Los Angeles, will be to have 20 deals signed by the end of 2025. The average square footage for a location ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 and the initial investment for a new build is between $250,000 and $300,000. Dato said to open in existing structures, the cost ranges from $100,000 to $150,000.
Dato said starting with about 20 locations will allow for a good deal of growth while preventing oversaturation.
“I want our franchisees to feel like what they own doesn’t have internal competition,” Dato said. “We’re going to be very careful with that. By doing 20, in about two years from now, we’ll have that number open, and we’ll have built enough critical mass to have fine-tuned all of the shared functions, allowing for a bigger expansion.”