Throughout an accelerating age of convenience, the wing category quickly ascended because of its simplicity and portability. In 2020, many restaurants leveraged extra kitchen space to start wing-based virtual brands to help with revenue losses.

Capriotti’s took the trend a step further by purchasing an entire chain, which means the venture is far more than a temporary side hustle, Bloom says.

“Our focus is to invest very heavily and make sure we're the best at it,” Bloom says. “And our belief is, there's always gonna be a number one, number two, and number three. If we're the very best at it and we have a great product, we're going to win. That’s how we run Capriotti’s. That's how we're going to approach Wing Zone. We don't think of it as a short-term fix. … It’s not an easy fix. It's going to be super competitive. It's going to take a lot of investment and a lot of innovation. We're going to have to be the best, so it's going to be a lot of hard work, and we're in it for the long haul.”

Bloom says off-premises will continue to be one of the main investments for both brands. This year, Capriotti’s opened its first corporate ghost kitchens in Los Angeles and Pasadena; ghost kitchen franchises are also now open and under development in Columbus, Ohio, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Portland, Austin, and Miami. Additionally, the chain rolled out virtual brands serving reimagined classic subs across Grubhub, Postmates, and DoorDash.

Wing Zone operates ghost kitchens overseas, and recently launched its own virtual brand, Tender Zone. Bloom says Capriotti’s will leverage national agreements with cloud kitchen providers Kitchen United and REEF Technologies to boost Wing Zone even further. And in turn, Wing Zone has relationships with companies like Aramark and AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Services) that will open doors for Capriotti’s.

“We do 70 to 80 percent of our revenue off-premise anyhow,” Bloom says. “So where a ghost kitchen makes the best sense, we’re opening ghost kitchens first. Just because we get in, we get open, and like literally in a couple of months, we’re open with three to four opening dates because they’re the operator. They put up capital. And that gives us a quick, early entry into the market, and then we start doing retail locations afterwards. I don't see us ever being just a ghost kitchen, just a virtual brand—for us it’s that overall market strategy.”

Capriotti’s will also invest by building corporate stores along with franchisees; more than 10 percent of the sandwich chain’s system is company-operated. One of its first measures will be to open about a half-dozen corporate Wing Zone stores around Las Vegas. Bloom says this will make Capriotti’s a better operator and help it understand the business.

“We have huge interest just here in Vegas. Some of the casino foodservice operators, they’re dying to do this,” Bloom says. “The back of the house for Wing Zone is actually much simpler than the back of the house for Capriotti’s. So from an operation standpoint it’s very attractive. And the ability to automate that even further is very attractive. We've been approached, and we're continuing to be approached.”

Capriotti’s and Wing Zone share several characteristics in how they operate, but Bloom notes the acquisition will also provide an opportunity to learn from each other. For example, Wing Zone has internal delivery, an area in which Capriotti’s will make numerous technologic and training investments to onboard “the very best people in the delivery world to work with us.” 

In return, the sandwich shop will help Wing Zone with distribution. Bloom says one of the major factors that has hampered Wing Zone’s growth is it only has a regional distributor, so it can’t grow effectively outside the Southeast. The chain will upgrade to national distribution, allowing it to grow in every market. Bloom believes Capriotti’s will also help Wing Zone with its technology. The executive explains that the sandwich chain is very analytical in its approach to real estate, targeted digital marketing, and other key areas. The chain just signed up for new virtual training platforms for both brands and uses “best-in-class” partners like FranConnect, a franchise management software.

“They haven't had that at Wing Zone,” Bloom said. “They haven't had that investment, that resource, to make those big investments long term, and so we're making those day one. Now we're investigating a whole bunch of new ones that are even bigger investments that will take longer to come to fruition, but we're benefitting both brands substantially.”

In fact, Bloom says the technology disruption that’s starting to hit the industry is only the beginning. He believes most restaurants are “way behind the power curve,” and there will be a continued widening between those that have invested and others that are hanging on by a thread. He notes that the pandemic won’t become easier anytime soon and that restaurants will still be dealing with it for at least another year. Bloom says that as a result, companies like Capriotti’s and Wing Zone will continue to have bigger and better opportunities because of their financial position and ability to integrate and execute.

Bloom recalls a couple of years ago when he had an opportunity to listen to Ron Shaich, the founder of Panera. Shaich’s major theme was that Panera’s success was attributable to being privately held and well-capitalized, giving it the ability to make long-term investments in people, product, and technology. Bloom says many of those investments didn’t pay off for years, whereas with public companies, “they’re always trying to think of something new to save the quarter or the year, and that’s a tough way to do business.”

He prefers to align Capriotti’s and Wing Zone’s business strategy more so with Panera. Capriotti’s had record years in 2019 and 2020 and anticipates continuation in 2021. The ascension hasn’t come with pivots either—just a linear sprint.

“I see a lot of people pivoting their business,” Bloom says. “I think that's probably going to be really hard to do because things are going to keep changing. Like you're pivoting to catch up, but then, by the time you get there, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence and virtual reality and the internet of things and 5G and all that stuff is happening, so getting ahead of it and staying ahead of the curve is going to be super, super important. And it's going to take a lot of smart people in the organization—investors, board members, senior team managers, franchise partners, everybody.”