Lauren Bailey, cofounder of Postino WineCafe, said the intention of her restaurant—since its start in 2001—has always been to create community spaces where people come to share their most special moments.
She describes the brand as a “one of one” concept. Guests can order a glass of wine without food or they can enjoy happy hour with their friends before going home for family dinner.
“They may go on a first date, they may decide to have a baby, they’re going to buy a house,” Bailey said. “And this is an incredible privilege that we try to honor through many occasions throughout the day. We love shareable food. We want to have an ability to serve people and meet them where they are.”
Over 25 years, Postino has expanded to 34 restaurants in 13 markets and seven states, from California to North Carolina. The highest concentration of units are in Arizona (where it was founded) and Texas. The company’s biggest growth year was 2024 when it opened seven restaurants in five new cities.
In the next five years, the brand hopes to double its unit count, much of which will likely come in warm weather states.
“We’re big patio people,” Bailey said. “We love to open up our operable windows and bring the outdoors in, and again, create these third places for people.”
Postino is the flagship concept of hospitality group Upward Projects, which features Federal Pizza, Windsor (gastropub), Joyride (taqueria), and Churn (ice cream shop). The chain’s expansion in recent years has been aided by private equity firm Brentwood Associates, which announced a “significant investment” in the restaurant group back in 2017.
The chain earned a $4.4 million AUV last year, or around $1,200 per square foot. Also, it’s same-store sales rose 5.1 percent, fueled by 3 percent traffic growth. On a two-year basis, comps rose 10 percent and traffic lifted 4 percent. In 2026, the brand expects to earn $161 million in systemwide sales; next year, it projects approximately $180 million.
Postino also boasts a 22 percent restaurant-level EBITDA margin.
“We are basically a fast-casual economic model with a full-service experience model,” Bailey said. “And how do we do that? Our kitchens are not cooking things to order. We’re not sautéing, we’re not frying things to order. So we have a really tight model when it comes to the kitchen production.”
With an average check of roughly $25 per person, Postino is fairly balanced across its menu mix, daypart mix, and day of the week mix:
| Menu Items | Mix |
| Wine | 22 percent |
| Bruschetta | 19 percent |
| Panini | 17 percent |
| Snacky Things | 12 percent |
| Liquor | 9 percent |
| Other | 9 percent |
| Salad | 6 percent |
| Catering | 4 percent |
| Beer | 4 percent |
| Daypart | Mix |
| Lunch | 52 percent |
| Dinner | 48 percent |
| Day of the Week | Mix |
| Saturday | 19 percent |
| Friday | 18 percent |
| Sunday | 13 percent |
| Thursday | 13 percent |
| Tuesday | 13 percent |
| Wednesday | 12 percent |
| Monday | 11 percent |
A typical Postino is around 3,500 square feet, which allows the brand to place several locations in one market. For instance, the company has eight units in Phoenix, and these restaurants have a $5.5 million AUV. There are also several stores in Houston and Denver that are relatively close together.
All restaurants are designed to feel individualized, with art walls, vintage lighting, and different tapestries.
“These truly become the neighborhood’s place,” Bailey said. “They all look a little different. Our North Star always is, is this where someone brings their friends from out of town?”
Postino’s uses its unique settings and offerings to develop an engaged customer base. The chain has more than 350,000 email subscribers, 170,000 social media followers, and a 4.5 star average restaurant sentiment rating.
“We’ve doubled down on our digital presence,” Bailey said. “We’ve decided to really invest heavily on that and build a lot of ways to touch our guests. We have incredible followership. If you mention Postino to someone, they usually light up and ‘Oh my gosh, that’s my place,’ and that means so much to us. And we do that a lot through digital assets. We spend a lot of time on our photography and really telling the story of how you can use the restaurant in so many different ways for so many different occasions.”
Postino’s leadership team comprises executives with experience from P.F. Chang’s, Shake Shack, Benihana, Chipotle, and CAVA.
Two of its board members are Andy Pforzheimer, the cofounder of bartaco and Barcelona Wine Bar, and Joth Ricci, the former CEO of Dutch Bros.
“This is something I’m hyper-focused on,” Bailey said. “We bring in people from other companies who’ve experienced high levels of growth at those companies during that time, and they’ve contributed greatly to the team and brought out a massive amount of knowledge and just a huge commitment to our efforts.”
