and beverage genre chain restaurant founded 1972 founder larry mindel founded restaurant concept in 1986 headquarters corte madera california united states number of locations 22 area served united states products italian cuisine services fine dining restaurant revenue 120 million 2000 owner roark capital group subsidiaries corner bakery cafe website www.ilfornaio.com il fornaio is a chain of twenty one as of 2014 italian themed fine dining restaurants operating primarily in california 16 locations of its 21 in the united states . contents 1 history 2 description 3 external links 4 references history edit the il fornaio brand was established in 1972 as a baking school in barlassina italy in the lombardia region . it opened a retail bakery in milan in 1975 and was licensed in 1981 to williams sonoma as a retail bakery concept . williams sonoma opened four locations in california before selling the business to private investors in 1983 . 1 initially unsuccessful the chain was re sold in 1986 to larry mindel who had run local restaurant holding company spectrum foods and launched or bought a series of successful restaurants chianti in los angeles ; prego one of the originators of california style pizza macarthur park and ciao in san francisco ; and guaymas in tiburon . 2 the new owners opened a total of 11 restaurant bakeries in california in late 1980s and 1990s . the first restaurant location and headquarters are in corte madera california the second in san francisco . they then branched out to las vegas nevada colorado and virginia opening a total of 22 by 2008 . 1 in 1997 the company became publicly traded on the nasdaq stock exchange . by 2000 the company had 124 million annual revenues . 1 the company was eventually taken private again in a leveraged buyout . 2 mindel sold most of his equity and retired from daily operations of the group in 2001 his son michael continued and is senior vice president of marketing as of 2014 and in 2003 opened poggio at the casa madrona hotel in sausalito as a personal project . 3 headquarters is in corte madera california . under the direction of executive chef maurizio mazzon a native of venice the company launched a second concept canaletto ristorante veneto at the venetian in las vegas in 1999 with a second location in 2008 in fashion island shopping mall in newport beach california . 4 roark capital group bought the company in 2011 . 5 description edit il fornaio in reston virginia each restaurant shares a core lunch and dinner menu created collectively by the company s chefs plus signature dishes and specials at the discretion of each individual chef . fresh pasta is made in house daily and all sauces soups and dressings are made from scratch . many locations featured wood fired rotisseries and grills . the restaurants also offer gluten free menus and an array of vegetarian and vegan offerings . housemade desserts complete many meals 6 overall the company caters mostly to repeat guests at its 21 locations . regular customers averaged 12.7 return visits per year later reported to be 17 considered very high in the industry . 7 the company is known for its long running festa regionale loyalty program promotion 7 two weeks out of every month the restaurants promote dishes from a rotating schedule of italy s 20 food regions with a special insert . the 10 000 promotion members receive a passport stamp from that region if they order one of the items and those who collect each stamp receive a gift . 7 as an unintended benefit the promotion became a vehicle for recruiting cooks and chefs after tourism offices in italy noticed the promotion and established relationships with the company . 7 external links edit ilfornaio.com official website references edit a b c our story . il fornaio . a b graceann walden 2002 12 04 . il fornaio s mindel looks to sausalito for his dream . san francisco chronicle . alan j. liddle 2003 04 07 . industry veteran mindel adds italian concept poggio to resume . nations restaurant news . fashion island to open exclusive italian restaurant . daily pilot . 2007 11 09 . atlanta s roark capital buys il fornaio parent firm . san francisco chronicle . 2011 06 14 . janet fletcher 2003 01 29 . masterful gnocchi . san francisco chronicle . a b c d margaret littman 2008 07 01 . il fornaio promotes a passport to italy . chain leader . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title il fornaio & oldid 743698884 categories companies based in san franciscoitalian restaurantsbakeries of the united statesprivately held companies based in californiaprivate equity portfolio companies navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 19 41 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view