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Chris Doody

Founder of Piada Italian Street Food

Jun 1, 2026

4:31
What inspired you to serve it in a fast casual setting, and has it been more difficult to train hospitality this time around?
4:38
Certainly Bravo Brio was very successful for a long time, and, uh, when we sold that business in '06, I left on that transaction.
4:47
I was still an investor, but I, I left the operating side and, uh, you know, I was pretty young at the time.
4:53
I was probably forty-three, forty-four, and, uh, I wasn't done.
4:57
Uh, you know, fast casual was just coming on then.
5:01
And, um, so, uh, having been to Italy, you know, a dozen times or more, um, I said, "You know, why hasn't anybody done this in fast casual?" And, uh, so I went back to Italy in '07 and '08 really with the, uh, the goal of figuring out, okay, is there a way to develop a fast casual version quality-wise what we were doing at Bravo Brio from a food standpoint? Because when we were running it, the food was great.
5:33
And, um, so I met a guy in Rimini, south of Venice, and he introduced me to the piada.

6 MINS LATER

11:37
Does the chain overlap with Chipotle's footprint, and if so, has it benefited from their sales weakness?

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