A Kentucky restaurant group and a renamed concept.

Fazoli’s began in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1988. An article written by the company for Franchise Update magazine (Issue 1, 2020) says it was founded that year, under the name Gratzi’s, by Jerrico, Inc., a multi-brand restaurant group based in Lexington and then the parent company of Long John Silver’s, and that the brand marked its 30th anniversary in September 2018. Wikipedia dates the opening restaurant to September 1988 and the change of name to Fazoli’s to 1989.

The concept soon left its creator. Wikipedia records that in 1990 Seed Restaurant Group, led by the former Jerrico executive Kunihide “Kuni” Toyoda, acquired the Fazoli’s restaurants then open, and that the chain grew under Toyoda’s ownership through the 1990s and early 2000s. The 2020 article says Fazoli’s has franchised since the early 1990s and, after numerous ownership changes, is still based in Lexington.

The brand has recently travelled beyond the mainland United States. Wikipedia records a master franchise agreement announced in 2024 with Briwin Restaurants Inc. to develop Fazoli’s in Canada, with the opening Canadian restaurant in Calgary, Alberta, in June 2025, followed by restaurants in Okotoks and Airdrie, and an opening in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in 2026. Wikipedia describes the chain as a fast-casual and quick-service operator, with many locations offering drive-through service.

Private equity, FAT Brands and a court-approved sale.

Through the 2000s and 2010s Fazoli’s passed between private-equity owners. The company’s 2020 Franchise Update article says Sun Capital Partners owned the brand from 2006 and that Sentinel Capital Partners acquired it from Sun Capital in 2015; Wikipedia dates the Sentinel acquisition to July 2015.

In December 2021 the chain changed hands again. Fast Casual reported on 16 December 2021 that FAT Brands, the franchising group behind Fatburger and Johnny Rockets, had completed its acquisition of Fazoli’s from Sentinel Capital Partners, marking its entry into Italian quick-service dining, and Restaurant Business noted that Sentinel had owned Fazoli’s for the previous six years. The purchase had been announced in November 2021; Wikipedia gives 15 December 2021 as the completion date. Restaurant Business reported that Fazoli’s would keep its Lexington headquarters, with chief executive Carl Howard and the rest of its executive team remaining in place under the new owner, and that Howard had said in an interview the month before that the chain would look for “synergies and collaborations” with FAT Brands.

FAT Brands filed for Chapter 11 protection in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in January 2026, Fast Casual reported. Retail & Restaurant Facility Business reported on 19 June 2026 that FBG Bid Co. had completed the acquisition of substantially all assets of certain FAT Brands subsidiaries, including Fazoli’s, Round Table Pizza, Fatburger and Johnny Rockets, after a court-supervised sale approved by that court. On 30 September 2026 Fast Casual reported that the business was now called OHG, for “Original. Honest. Good.,” and that the lender entity FBG Bid Co. LLC had launched OHG Brands as the new corporate entity for the portfolio, including Fazoli’s. According to company officials quoted in that report, the new identity centres on using brand heritage to drive growth, menu development and customer engagement. FBG Bid Co. has owned Fazoli’s since June 2026.

Through these changes the head office has stayed in Lexington. Wikipedia names Tim Kimmel as president of Fazoli’s in 2026.

Signs, boxes and the counter.

A pizza or pasta chain meets its customers in a handful of physical places before anyone opens a menu: the sign above the door, the box or bag that leaves the shop, the counter where an order is placed and the board that lists what can be ordered. Each of those surfaces carries the name and the colours, and each has to work at a different distance, from a fascia read across a car park to a box lid read at a kitchen table.

Some restaurant formats put the kitchen in view, with an assembly line or an oven behind the counter, so the preparation area becomes part of the interior design and the menu board doubles as an ordering guide. Other formats keep the kitchen out of sight and lean on the dining room, the drive-through lane or the delivery packaging instead.

Each guide in this group looks at the brand rather than the food: who started it and where, who has owned it since, and how its name, logo, signage and restaurant interiors are documented in dated, independent sources, with anything the company says about itself marked as its own account.

A tomato logo, a prototype and a dining room.

The Fazoli’s identity is anchored by a red tomato. Fast Casual reported on 26 October 2016 that chief executive Carl Howard said the chain had updated its look in 2011 and was now rolling out another refresh, launched in March of that year with a stand-alone prototype restaurant in Macon, Georgia. According to Howard, the new design elements included improved lighting to make the building more visible at night, prominent placement of the Fazoli’s tomato logo and a versatile colour scheme meant to give the brand a fresh, modern image, and every new restaurant would carry the updated design. The same report said the restaurants were moving to real plates and silverware in place of foam plates and plastic cutlery, and that the menu had added made-to-order options including the Primo Submarinos sandwiches. The report linked to a video interview with Howard filmed in one of the newest restaurants, in Belton, Missouri.

The company’s own 2020 Franchise Update article describes the next prototype from the inside. It says the menu influenced much of the upgraded design; that the decor added communal seating; that artwork emphasises a “made to order” and “made to share” atmosphere; and that the red tomato greets guests as they step through the door. It also says the colour scheme and wood tones were chosen with care, and that the design includes dedicated Pronto Pickup shelving for delivery and online orders.

For a design guide, Fazoli’s shows how a single ingredient can stand for a whole menu, and how a quick-service chain can describe its interiors in the language of a sit-down dining room. Compare it with Cicis, another American pizza and pasta chain, and with Domino’s. The palette here starts from the documented red tomato and adds a leaf green for the plant and a wood brown drawn from the 2020 description of the dining rooms, with a cream ground and a dark ink for text; all of these values are our own interpretation. For this guide we use tomato red, leaf green and wood brown with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Fazoli’s’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.