Multi-Unit Pita Pit Owner Finds Success on College Campuses

The true mark of a “perfect job” is one that doesn’t feel like a job. This is a commonly held belief, but how many people can actually say that it applies to them?

Jack Brighenti is one of them. In 2008, at just 23 years old, he bought his first Pita Pit location in New Orleans on Magazine Street. Since then, he’s grown his empire to encompass nine locations – he has built four new stores and taken ownership of five underperforming stores. He currently owns locations in New Orleans, Hammond and Baton Rouge in Louisiana; Oxford and Starkville in Mississippi; Tuscaloosa and Auburn in Alabama; and Panama City Beach and Tallahassee in Florida.

“Taking over stores has led to great success for us,” said Brighenti. “If it’s an older store in the right location, my team knows what it takes to remodel and refresh the look of the store, expand the hours if necessary, implement a rigorous training program and bring the operations up to our standards.”

While the majority of Brighenti’s locations are on college campuses, he recently took over a location in Panama City Beach and is looking at taking over other locations that aren’t on college campuses.

“We aren’t married to the idea of being only on college campuses – it just aligns nicely with Pita Pit’s target demographic and has been a sweet spot for us,” said Brighenti. “But as long as the demographics of the area align, the foot traffic is there, and we have a good brand presence in the area, it’s a no brainier for us.”

Whether it’s new construction or taking over an existing store, Brighenti knows that it’s his team’s operations processes that lead to success. His two partners, Cody Ashworth and Kevin Ochs, and two regional managers, Charlie Williams and Josh Gossett, value operations as much as Brighenti does.

“My team and I are like a family. We share the love of what we do. We stick to the basics, obsess over the operations and always focus on how we can continue perfecting our system,” Brighenti said. “I spend the bulk of my time traveling visiting all the stores, and our phenomenal store managers and regional managers keep in constant contact. I work the stores for a week and find the gaps to fix and celebrate the strengths. My main focus is that the stores are clean and the staff is trained properly and my team supports me in these goals.”

When asked how his young age factors into his business success, Brighenti says with a laugh, “I’m 31 but I feel 40.”

He adds, “Being young in this business offers such a fun challenge every single day. I was such a big fan of Pita Pit in college that it was an easy transition to becoming a franchise owner – and it’s been a blast every day since. When your job just feels like an extension of your weekend, you know you’ve found the right job.”