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Take-Away with Sam Oches

Why Denver’s Gastamo Group builds creative casual restaurant brands in the suburbsWhy Denver’s Gastamo Group builds creative casual restaurant brands in the suburbs

Gastamo partner Peter Newlin shares how the group creates unique experiences for guests in the ’burbs.

Sam Oches, Editor in Chief

November 27, 2024

When COVID-19 and the work-from-home trend inspired many consumers to move into the suburbs, the restaurant industry followed suit — particularly quick serves and fast casuals that gobbled up valuable drive-thru real estate and other locations that could power off-premises service.

A few years on, at least one group believes that the suburbs are now ripe for a different kind of restaurant experience: casual concepts with a local flare.

Gastamo Group, a Denver-based hospitality firm that owns casual concepts like Park Burger and Homegrown Tap & Dough, among others, has committed to developing unique, localized casual-dining restaurant brands throughout Colorado. It particularly sees a lot of opportunity in operating its brands in the suburbs next door to the biggest national chains. 

Gastamo cofounder and partner Peter Newlin joined the latest episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches to share why Gastamo Group is committed to a “regional fortress” strategy that confines growth to Colorado and its suburbs — and how the group develops creative experiences that resonate with guests.  

In this conversation, you’ll learn more about why:

  • Don’t assume to know what your community wants and needs in a restaurant

  • Restaurants are living, breathing organisms; evolve them accordingly

  • If you build a great brand, the opportunities for growth will follow

  • Suburban casual dining is ripe for growth, especially among more localized concepts

  • Your restaurant experience should tell a story

  • A great restaurant experience is all in the details

  • To level up loyalty, restaurants should take a page out of hotels’ playbook

  • A “regional fortress” growth strategy could be a boon to smaller concepts

Contact Sam Oches at [email protected].

About the Author

Sam Oches

Editor in Chief

Sam Oches is an award-winning Editorial Director with Informa Connect Foodservice and editor in chief of Nation's Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. A graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, Sam previously served as Editorial Director of Food News Media, publisher of QSR and FSR magazines. He’s a past president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC) and a past board member with the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). His foodservice insights have been shared in national media outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today, National Public Radio, and CNBC. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and three kids.

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