How Mici Italian Landed on QSR Magazine’s 40/40 List In Its First Year of Franchising

Established in 2004, Mici Italian is not a new name in the restaurant industry, but the artisan pizza brand is new to franchising, having launched its franchise model just last year. Yet the emerging franchise has already seen rapid growth and widespread industry acclaim, including the recent ranking on QSR Magazine’s 40/40 list, which highlights “America’s hottest startup fast casuals.”

The 40/40 list aims to provide the industry, and potential franchisees looking for opportunities, with a breakdown of fast casual restaurants ready to dominate the industry. The QSR editors then choose the brands based on performance, menu innovation, the uniqueness of the business model and its buzz-worthiness.

Mici has become a leader in the fast casual category, and recognized by QSR, thanks largely to its simplified cooking process. Mici has refined its menu and cooking process to produce quality items, showing that you don’t need to sacrifice the use of fresh, preservative-free ingredients to maintain simple and streamlined operations. 

Mici is in a unique position as a fast casual restaurant that has always provided enhanced services by offering a delivery and takeaway option, a move that’s shown to be especially beneficial and ahead of the curve as customers continue to prefer contactless methods over interacting with others since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The line between quick service restaurants and fast casual has become more blurred since the pandemic,” said Joe Melton, Chief Operating Officer at Mici. “There is much more off-premise dining than before the pandemic, but we spent years refining our business model and recipes to offer delivery and take-away services for our customers.” 

The move to refine and perfect its delivery and take-away services before it became a necessity during the pandemic has proven critical for Mici as it looks to secure franchise opportunities in the year to come.

Melton says the brand is proud of the work and effort it has put into building a foundation of quality. “We took out kitchen complexity to make it more streamlined, focused on build-out costs to ensure we’re getting a good return on investment and put all the pieces in place so that when we start growing rapidly there is no doubt about the processes already established,” he said.

Mici has seven corporate-owned locations in Denver and has signed multi-unit franchise agreements in Phoenix, Arizona; Detroit, Michigan; and Dallas, Texas. This aggressive growth from 2021 will continue throughout 2022, with a goal of bringing on five more large franchise groups.

The brand’s current development strategy is to focus on finding passionate, high-quality operators rather than expanding quickly with anyone who can meet the financial requirements.

“We know that if we bring on good operators, that’s going to serve the brand better than signing franchise agreements for the sake of signing them,” said Melton. “Bringing on great groups is going to create an even stronger brand and better service for our customers. We want to grow smart and franchise with great groups who are dedicated to the Mici brand and can effectively and efficiently operate a business.” 

About Mici Italian

Founded in 2004 by Miceli siblings Jeff, Michael and Kim, Mici is an emerging Italian restaurant franchise based in Denver. Mici’s streamlined artisanal menu offers comforting, classic Italian fare steeped in generations of family history, all prepared quickly without losing an inch of quality, for families who don’t always have the time or money to prepare a full Italian dinner and each location offers minimal wait and delivery times thanks to high-efficiency kitchen operations. Recently, Mici signed a 30-unit franchise deal in Phoenix with several new locations slated to open in 2022.