Craveworthy Brands, the Chicago multi-brand platform, has agreed to buy New England Authentic Eats, the Dedham, Massachusetts parent of Papa Gino’s and D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches, in a deal announced on November 9. The acquisition folds roughly 160 restaurants and about $160 million in annual revenue into Craveworthy’s portfolio and pushes the company toward 500 locations, with the deal expected to close by December 31.
A New England Fixture Changing Hands Again
Papa Gino’s has been a familiar New England pizza brand since 1961, but the chain Craveworthy is buying is smaller than the one longtime customers remember. It finished 2025 with 70 locations, all in New England, and sales of just under $50 million, down 9.5 percent year over year, according to Technomic. The current owner, private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital, built New England Authentic Eats after buying the two brands out of a 2018 bankruptcy for about $20 million. Seven years later it is handing a shrinking footprint to a buyer built to consolidate exactly this kind of asset.
D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches comes along as part of the same transaction. The chain shares Papa Gino’s parent company and its regional base, and together the two brands hand Craveworthy a dense New England cluster to build on rather than a single concept.
The Platform Buyer on the Other Side
Craveworthy founder Gregg Majewski framed the purchase as a long-sought target, calling it “the deal we wanted to get to” and “the most I’ve ever paid for a brand because the opportunity is massive.” The plan leans on co-branding, and Craveworthy expects to add its Wing It On concept inside Papa Gino’s dining locations, a move it projects will carry Wing It On from roughly 50 stores to about 145.
A platform like Craveworthy is the standing bid for regional chains that have lost comparable-sales momentum but still hold leases and a recognizable brand worth more inside a larger system than on their own. That buyer underwrites the footprint on what shared commissaries, back-office scale, and a second brand in the same four walls can produce, which is a different number than a stand-alone operator would ever reach.
From Family Brand to Platform Asset
The arc from independent to regional chain to platform asset runs the same way on both coasts. A private equity buyer hunting for durable, cash-generating businesses treats a declining regional chain as a turnaround input and prices it on what a bigger system can wring out of the footprint. For owners of single restaurants and small local groups, the decisive moves happen well upstream of any headline deal. Value accrues to the operator who controls the real estate, keeps clean books, and builds a concept that transfers without its founder. Those are the businesses that command a premium when the generational ownership transfer finally forces a sale.
The same consolidation is visible across Southern California, where well-capitalized operators keep adding units through franchise development deals and absorbing second-generation space as independents exit. A San Diego or Orange County owner reading the Papa Gino’s news is looking at the end state of a brand that let comps slide and ran out of independent runway. A business packaged while it still carries momentum commands a different price than one a platform buyer picks up after the decline sets the terms. Smith Allen works with operators on both the sell side and the valuation that comes before it.
Sources
- Nation’s Restaurant News, “Craveworthy Brands adds Papa Gino’s to its roster”
- FastCasual, “Craveworthy Brands to acquire Papa Gino’s, add 160-plus restaurants”
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