Craveworthy Brands Acquires Papa Gino's, Targets 145 Wing It On! Units

Craveworthy Brands has signed a definitive agreement to acquire New England Authentic Eats LLC, the Dedham, Massachusetts-based parent of Papa Gino's Pizzeria, in a deal that would add more than 160 restaurants and approximately $160 million in annual revenue to its multi-brand platform. The transaction is expected to close by Dec. 31, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions.

The deal pushes Craveworthy's total footprint to nearly 500 locations and raises its systemwide sales base to more than $300 million. More consequential for the brand's near-term strategy is what happens next: the company plans to introduce its Wing It On! chicken wing concept at every Papa Gino's location across New England, which would expand Wing It On! from 45 restaurants to more than 145 — a more-than-threefold increase in unit count.

The Co-Brand Play

The co-branding angle is central to Craveworthy's growth logic. Rather than building Wing It On! locations from the ground up, the company routes the brand into Papa Gino's established four-wall infrastructure, leveraging existing kitchens, staff, and regional customer traffic. It's the same playbook that has driven co-brand adoption across the broader foodservice industry, where operators seek to maximize revenue per square foot without the capital outlay of greenfield development. Pizza and wings share prep equipment, delivery packaging, and an overlapping consumer occasion — the game-day or family-meal order — which limits back-of-house friction.

Founded in East Boston in 1961, Papa Gino's carries strong regional equity; the brand markets itself as the "Official Pizza of New Englanders" and operates on a handmade-dough, Italian-family-recipe platform. Craveworthy has indicated it will preserve the Papa Gino's name, menu, and identity. Wing It On!, founded in Connecticut in 2011, has built a following around its buffalo wing program — its Medium Buffalo sauce has taken first place at the National Buffalo Wing Festival for multiple consecutive years.

Scale and What's Next

Gregg Majewski, CEO and founder of Craveworthy, framed the acquisition in terms of protecting brand equity before deploying the company's operational platform. "Papa Gino's is a New England institution. People grew up on this pizza, and we're going to honor that," Majewski said. "We protect what makes a brand special, then put our full platform behind it."

Craveworthy's shared infrastructure — combined purchasing, integrated technology, and centralized training — will be extended to NEAE's restaurant and franchise operators ahead of the Wing It On! rollout. The company targets additional acquisitions of comparable scale every six to nine months, signaling that the Papa Gino's deal is a template, not a one-off.

For convenience and foodservice operators tracking multi-unit restaurant consolidation and co-brand foodservice strategies, the Craveworthy-NEAE structure illustrates how mid-market chains can accelerate unit growth through acquisition rather than organic development — a tactic increasingly relevant as construction costs and labor constraints squeeze traditional expansion timelines. Keel Merchant Bank and Akerman LLP advised Craveworthy; Harrington Park Advisors and Vedder represented NEAE.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.