The Fast Casual Nation Podcast offers exclusive interviews with experts ranging from top chefs and brand makers to executives and restaurants who work in one of the fastest-growing segments of the restaurant industry. In this episode, host Paul Barron chats with Cosmo Magliozzi, founder of Pasta 78 to discuss preparing to create a fast casual brand and developing it for expansion.

Magliozzi talks about his introduction to what would become the birth of fast casual concepts back in the nineties, being inspired by Chipotle, and how his mentors and friends Joey Ciolli and Eric Grennwald of Grimaldi’s Pizzeria helped Magliozzi get his brand launched.

One year prior to opening Magliozzi says, his goal was to be able to make fresh pasta, cook it in under four minutes, and get it into a bowl and served. He adds, “you can make fifty to sixty pounds of pasta in less than an hour.” In November of 2020 Magliozzi says they opened their doors and then the pandemic. Since they have been building the brand and Pasta 78 is at the top of the list when fresh pasta is searched in Google.

Magliozzi says, when they entered the space, third party delivery like DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats saved the restaurant industry. He adds, if you were already an established business it was a lot easier to go online to order but being new they would have to find your restaurant first.

Barron asks Magliozzi about the next generation of consumers, he says Pasta 78 has embraced TikTok and they began inviting bloggers and influencers to come to the restaurant for a free meal. Magliozzi says he had late teens and early twenties coming in, even the millennials were coming. Pasta 78 had a video go viral getting fifty six thousand hits, which drove business to the restaurant.

To hear more from Magliozzi about the positive impact of social media, the importance of delivery, and Pasta 78’s future growth plans, tune in to the episode of Fast Casual Nation on iTunes.