Miscusi towards the opening of 40 restaurants by 2027

The formula is as Italian as it gets: a plate of fresh pasta seasoned as the customer prefers. This is the formula of Miscusi, a chain of casual dining restaurants that wants to open about forty locations by 2027. It is the brainchild of two friends, Alberto Cartasegna and Filippo Mottolese, who decided to create a format revolving around an open pasta factory. "Each restaurant has its own where we produce fresh pasta. Customers can compose their own dish or choose from the recommended combinations,' says Alberto Cartasegna, CEO of Miscusi. 'In order to have homogeneous quality and fast service, we have engineered the kitchen by equipping it with automatic kettles, standardised processes that reduce errors to a minimum and ensure that the recipes are always balanced in their ingredients. Ingredients come from some forty Italian suppliers: Niko Romito's Laboratorio di Niko Romito for bread, Pino Cuttaia for some processed seeds, Molini del Ponte for ancient grains, Novella for pesto, Agrifuture for sorghum grown in regenerative agriculture, Ittica Sud for shrimps, Agromonte for tomatoes/sauce continues the CEO. Thus Miscusi has arrived at 23 restaurants managed both directly and in franchising, the latter being present mainly in shopping centres.

As far as the growth plan is concerned, 'we aim to open 40 restaurants in Italia, reach an Ebitda of 4 million by the end of 2027, and make 200 hires,' Cartasegna recounts. 'The year 2025 ended with a turnover of 16 million, an Ebitda of 1.5 million, and 60 hires that brought the workforce between direct and indirect to 350 people. This year's shareholders include Olympic gold medallist Federica Brignone, who has also become sport ambassador of the premises that aims to bring pasta back to the centre of a new narrative of energy, far from extremism and food fads, and based on balance, quality and movement.

Underpinning the Miscusi project is Cartasegna's experience in the restaurant business 'where I have been working for 20 years. At the age of 14 I started delivering pizzas, at 18 in London I was washing dishes - recalls the founder and Ceo of Miscusi -. I slept between shifts on laundry bags and cried exhausted in the basement at the end of my shift. Catering can and must be better than that. It needs respect, but also method, technology and courage to make this work a desire and not a sacrifice. Every day we work to lighten the work in restaurants, to make it more pleasant, less heavy