Postino has 35 locations in seven states. | Photo: Shutterstock
Lauren Bailey and her mom recently sat down at a restaurant at the mall. It was 3 in the afternoon, and they just wanted a glass of wine and an appetizer. The light order did not land well with their server.
“You’d have thought that I punched the server in the face,” said Bailey, the CEO of Postino WineCafe. “He was horrified.”
This situation is probably familiar to many restaurantgoers, and it is the type of thing Bailey is hoping to avoid with Postino. The wine-focused concept she co-founded in 2001 is built around flexibility: Order a glass of wine, or several. Get something to nibble on, or don’t. Come in flip-flops or a prom dress. It’s all the same to Bailey and her staff, many of whom are customers themselves.
“As we’ve grown and gone into other markets, it’s actually hard to teach people that you can do whatever you want in this restaurant,” Bailey said. “There’s an element of that ambiguity that I think we really rely on.”
As confusing as that may be for some newcomers, it has worked remarkably well for the chain overall. Systemwide sales soared by 20% last year, to $143 million, according to Technomic. That made Postino one of the fastest-growing casual-dining chains in the country, and not because it opened a ton of new restaurants. Unit count grew by 9%, to 35 locations in seven states.
Bailey credits much of Postino’s success to its unusual format. Though it specializes in wine, it is not a bar, nor is it a traditional sit-down restaurant. The food menu is compact and dominated by snacks and sharables, like its popular bruschetta boards — a trait that Bailey believes has helped win over the Ozempic set in recent years.
“I think our food is great for GLP-1 people,” she said, referring to the weight-loss drugs that work by suppressing the appetite.
And though it is a chain, Postino strives to make each location feel like a local hangout. It likes to occupy historic buildings, such as the old Phoenix post office that inspired its name. Decor is often tied to the story of the building and curated by Bailey herself, with much of the art acquired at auctions.
“I jokingly say I’m a hoarder with a place to put stuff,” Bailey said.
The bespoke vibe extends to staff as well. Postino hires locals who also tend to be fans of the restaurant. There are no uniforms or scripts, and employees are held to a simple standard for service: Make customers feel better than they did when they arrived.
The goal is to create a classic “third place” in a world where those have become harder to find. The surest sign that Postino is achieving that goal, Bailey said, is when customers say they bring out-of-towners there.
“You wouldn’t take your friends from out of town somewhere that you weren’t personally proud of or connected to,” she said. “That statement, to me, is such a measure of everything we’re trying to do.”
Bailey’s challenge now is finding even more reasons for customers to visit Postino as it looks to improve upon its recent sales growth. It already offers weekend brunch, daily happy hour, and “Board + Bottle” nights on Monday and Tuesdays, when visitors can get a bruschetta board and a bottle of wine for $25. She has thought about upgrading the coffee program to drive morning traffic, for instance, or expanding outdoor seating.
“We’re already full, so I’m not gonna try to sell more stuff or raise prices,” she said. “I think about more occasions.”
Phoenix-based Postino is also eyeing more locations, with plans to double in size by 2030. It opened seven in 2024 and four last year, with five planned for 2026 and seven for 2027. That would bring it close to 50 units.
Postino and its four sister concepts under the Upward Projects umbrella are backed by Brentwood Associates, a private-equity firm with a long history of restaurant investments. And while PE has a reputation for demanding rapid unit growth, Bailey said that hasn’t been the case with Brentwood.
“If anything, they’re like, ‘Take it a little slower,’” she said. “Having a partner like that is incredible, and I’m super lucky.”
Postino’s pace of growth will be in part based on its ability to attract and retain good people. The company aims for 70% of its leadership team to be promoted from within, and is at about 68% right now, Bailey said. It has invested heavily in creating a real career path for employees, even tapping consulting firm FranklinCovey to help with leadership development.
“We have a lot of team members who want to know if there’s gonna be a spot for them, and are they signing up for something where they have a path to growth?” Bailey said. “We’ve spent a ton of time on that.”
Bailey credited several mentors for shaping her own leadership philosophy, specifically Andy Pforzheimer, founder and CEO of Barteca Restaurants, and Joth Ricci, former CEO of Dutch Bros.
Pforzheimer, she said, has been a “thought partner” since Postino’s early days, and has helped keep Bailey in check. “He will tell you that your baby’s ugly, and he will call me and say ‘What are you doing?’” she said.
She finally succeeded in getting Ricci to join the board in 2024 after a yearslong pursuit. For Bailey, Ricci has been “the founder whisperer,” helping her make the transition from founder to CEO.
But Bailey, who has been working in restaurants her whole career, is still a founder at heart, taking a hands-on approach to the business even as it expands. She has been warned along that way that it can be hard for founders to maintain that commitment, but she doesn’t plan to let someone else take the wheel anytime soon.
“What else would I do?” Bailey said. “People are just like, ‘Oh, this is so hard.’ I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a good thing I don’t know anything else, ’cause this is it.’”
