Antico Vinaio towards 100 million turnover, twenty new openings in 2026

A continuous throwing his heart over the obstacle, sometimes even against the prevailing commercial logic. And certainly always putting his face, as in his viral videos, as well as his wallet. This is the red thread that unites the story that Tommaso Mazzanti tells Food24 of the history and projects of "All'Antico Vinaio", from the beginnings in the small, family-run Florentine shop to the international brand that it has become today, of which he is CEO.

In 2014, it was the restaurant with the most online reviews in the world, but those who warned that its success could soon run out, when the social flame fuelled by the photos of the queues taken in front of the historic shop near Piazza della Signoria and those of its superfilled schiacciate (flat bread) of Italian cured meats and cheeses went out, answered not only by the queues (and the social) that are still there, but above all by the numbers of the big business that is conquering a market as difficult to penetrate as the United States.
The turnover of All'Antico Vinaio has in fact risen from 26 million in 2022 to 62 million in 2024, up to 80 million in 2025. There are now 51 shops in the world (Dubai and Fiumicino in partnership with the Avolta group) for around 800 employees. In 2025 alone, six new shops have been opened between Italy and Europe (Bari, Palermo, Milan, Pisa, London and Paris) and eight in the USA (from New York to Beverly Hills, from Boston to Nashville) with the Bastianich family (minority shareholder for the USA and UK).

Mazzanti, if not to stop, isn't it at least time to slow down a little? "I have not stopped in far more difficult times and I will not do so now. In 2026 we are planning at least another twenty openings, with the goal of reaching the symbolic figure of 100 million in sales and counting on staying around the 25% margin in terms of ebitda. And perhaps we will come close to 100 premises in 2027. We did not stop with Covid, when I was heavily in debt personally to open the first shop in Milan and after less than four months we had to close due to lockdown. When we reopened, however, there were 400 people in the queue and that's when I realised that the synthesis of Italian-made quality can be found in our schiacciata. There I realised that we could grow a lot. At that point, to many, the following opening and the idea of landing in the US might have seemed a bit crazy, but it wasn't and the facts proved us right'.

Some say that to keep up with the cash flow with too many openings risks blowing everything up. "The risk is high every morning I am confident that I am doing the company good. And if everything depended on financial logic or on profit alone then I would have already sold everything and made many millions. But I want to continue to build and tell a beautiful story, which has something magical about it, and also leave an example for the new generations,' Mazzanti continues. So will the 'recipe' remain the same? "Since the beginning we have changed very little and only in some locations, perhaps with a little extra space for families or with recipes compatible with intolerances. The central management structure has expanded by about forty people (excluding the US, ed.) but it is very important to have everything under control, starting with the raw materials: the suppliers who believed in us, understood that they had to increase production a lot and are still with us. I am now evaluating opportunities for vertical expansion to gain direct control of who produces the ingredients. Then in the future the time may come to open up to franchisng, but only if I have guarantees of control of a certain type'.

The interruption of the partnership with Percassi seemed to have marked a moment of crisis and instead... 'We were together for two years, I learnt a lot from a great entrepreneur and an exquisite person, but the financial logic was different because they managed so many brands, I wanted to accelerate more'.