The fast-casual Tijuana Flats chain has a new owner.
The 45-unit &pizza on Thursday announced the acquisition of the 95-unit Tijuana Flats. Both brands will be operated under a newly formed holding company called Latitude Food Group (LFG). Terms were not disclosed.
The goal is to build a platform company that will take advantage of shared infrastructure, technology and purchasing power as both brands position to grow through franchising, said Mike Burns, CEO of &pizza who will become CEO of LFG.
More acquisitions are planned down the road, after the two brands get established under the new structure, he said.
Tijuana Flats is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The chain operates in the Southeast and was owned by LS Capital (operating as Flatheads LLC), which put the brand into bankruptcy last year, after shuttering about 40 restaurants.
LS Capital brought in turnaround specialist James Greco to rework the brand. The chain reduced its debt and improved profitability. The brand emerged from bankruptcy in January.
Burns said Greco will stay on as CEO through the transition, but then will turn over the reins.
“Jim has done a really good job in the two years that he’s been here,” Burns said. “It made it significantly easier to step in and continue the momentum that they built.”
Despite the fact that &pizza is half the size of Tijuana Flats, the Mexican chain was a “natural fit” for several reasons, Burns said.
Both are regional brands with passionate fans and a vibe that “hits you over the head,” he said. Both brands were mostly dine-in pre-COVID, but have evolved to be mostly off-premise post pandemic. And both are working to grow through franchising.
Of Tijuana Flat’s 95 locations, 26 are franchised.
&pizza, which just began franchising last year, recently announced its first franchise deals, with four franchisees committing to open 12 units in the new markets of Orlando; Atlanta; Charleston, South Carolina and Raleigh, North Carolina.
There’s another common thread: Both chains saw double-digit sales losses last year, according to data from Technomic, a Restaurant Business sister brand.
&pizza had sales of $61.2 million in fiscal 2024, a 15% decline. Tijuana Flats, meanwhile, had sales of $111 million, down more than 18%.
&pizza is a primarily company-owned chain, though Burns has said he hopes to refranchise 90% of the brand’s 45 locations in time.
Last year, &pizza shuttered about 13 underperforming units in what was described as a right-sizing of the portfolio. Now Burns hopes to reach at least 250 by 2030 with franchising.
The pizza chain is owned by Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, which brought Burns to the CEO suite in 2023. Burns has been working to return &pizza to the edgy vibe it first had under founder Michael Lastoria.
The two chains will be operated separately in terms of things like marketing and operations. But LFG will allow the brands to share other services, like finance, IT, human resources and even the culinary team, he said.
“I think the same level of energy that the leadership team at &pizza had there can apply the same level of energy to the Tijuana Flats team down in Orlando,” said Burns. “It’s going to be a singular voice for both brands, which will be me.”
Though the menus are very different, there are enough similarities in ingredients that will give the brands buying power for items like cheese, and various proteins.
&pizza already offers a taco-like “Za-co” flight on the menu on Tuesdays, for example.
“I would not be surprised if we did some kind of Mexican pizza on the Tijuana Flats side, so we’ll see some Easter eggs in there that tie the brands together,” said Burns.
The two brands will be based in Maitland, Florida, where the headquarters for Tijuana Flats will become the home of LFG.
“It’s not this epic turnaround that we have to walk in the door and flip everything upside down,” said Burns. “It’s got really good bones and infrastructure here. And a lot of the sins of the past were shaken off through bankruptcy. So it’s kind of nice to come in on the other side of it, where it’s been pretty clean.”
One shift, however, will be moving Tijuana Flats away from its heavy emphasis on discounting.
As he did at &pizza, Burns plans to shift to an everyday value-based menu that will draw in guests throughout the week, rather than driving traffic with deals on certain days.
Burns said he sees a ton of potential for the Tijuana Flats brand to grow, starting in Florida, he said.
The name Latitude Food Group—with the acronym LFG—was chosen for a reason (as in “Let’s F**ing Go”).
“We want to move fast, both brands, really high pace. The word ‘attitude’ mixed with ‘latitude,’” he said. “If you want to guess what brands we’re going to acquire, that’s the stuff we’re looking for: Some place you can come in [that can be] loud, boisterous, high energy—or have the potential to be.”
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