Skift Take
The potential to scale Bartaco is huge for Del Frisco, given the concept's high profit margins. But if the CEO sees the 18-unit taco chain becoming a 300-unit behemoth in the future, it's going to take a lot of smart real estate decisions to get there.
As large restaurant chains survey the industry in search of smaller acquisitions, Del Frisco Restaurant Group got a jump on the competition when it made its move earlier this year.
The chain bought Barteca, which included Barcelona Wine Bar and Bartaco, a fast casual taco chain, in June 2018 for $325 million in cash, and quickly got to work with closing underperforming locations and charting a new path of growth.
At Bartaco, that means measured expansion in markets that make sense for the brand. Del Frisco's CEO Norman Abdallah said on the company's third qu