Check out the new pizza brand from the owners of Red Rock Noodle Bar
QSR Media talks to the Wilder Ruiz, Executive Chairman of the Arbalo Group, owners of the Red Rock brand, about their new pizza brand, Pizziano.
QSR Media: Can you tell us more about Pizziano?
Wilder Ruiz: Arbalo Group [launched] Pizziano in Mango Hill at the end of October [last year]. We plan to offer tastings and a gourmet product not yet seen in the market.
Our philosophy with Pizziano is to take quality to the people, make it accessible, and create a local buzz. The new Pizziano menu is amazing, we worked hard on getting that right. For example, for one of the new pizzas, there is an ingredient that is 12 hour cooked meat, so we bought the proper oven (which was very expensive!) to produce it ourselves for authenticity.
QSR Media: Regarding locations, any other particular places or states you'd like Pizziano to expand to? Which areas would be attractive?
Ruiz: For Pizziano, each store will have a localised feel – they will be different according to where they, to create the best local experience, so that store will belong to the area. All the produce will be sourced locally. There is nothing mass-produced or ‘cookie-cutter’ about this concept, each one will have its own footprint. Everything will be made from local ingredients, from scratch.
QSR Media: What would you like to tell the market about where your brand is strategically headed?
Ruiz: The Arbalo Group is heading in the direction of market leaders in food innovation and creation. We are really listening to what our customers want, and I think that people are actually overall fed up with the fast food concept. While pricing is still an issue, people are prepared to pay for good, tasty, authentic food. They want quality. And they are always looking for something different which is what we are about creating.
I personally am excited about working with Arbalo’s great group of directors, and bringing food concepts together from all over the world, working with diverse cultures and influences.
Overall the Arbalo Group vision is to put a plan together to develop unique food concepts that can be developed in Australia, and then taken overseas.
Australia is so uniquely positioned with tons of international food influences that can be mixed into fusion style food styles. There is nowhere else where we have so many different nationalities living in the same country and we can access all the different food styles and create new, exciting food concepts.
