Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen

Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen is a quick-service Italian restaurant brand within Villa Restaurant Group that focuses on familiar, pizza-led fare in high-traffic settings. Guests typically find New York style pizza by the slice, pasta, stromboli, salads, and other Italian American staples that work well for busy food courts, corridors, and common-area dining.

The concept traces back to 1964, when Michele “Michael” Scotto opened a single pizzeria near Union Station in New York City. That shop became the platform for what is now Villa Restaurant Group, which grew over the decades from a local operation into a national and then international multi-brand restaurant company. A key milestone for Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen came as the brand moved beyond street locations and into shopping malls and airports across the United States, giving it a visible role in food courts and transportation venues and helping establish it as one of the group’s best known concepts.

As of August 2024, Villa Restaurant Group reports more than 250 locations across its portfolio in over 40 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and international markets including Mexico, the Middle East, and Latin America. Within that system, Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen most often appears in regional malls, outlet centers, major airports, and highway travel plazas, usually in inline or food-court spaces rather than standalone buildings. The format is built around a compact kitchen and high pizza slice volume, with the flexibility to tilt the menu toward either grab-and-go slices or a fuller Italian lineup depending on the project.

Over roughly the past five years, the company has sharpened its focus on non-traditional and captive-audience venues and has become more active in airports and broader transportation hubs. Villa Restaurant Group has leaned into multi-brand deals, placing Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen alongside its sister concepts in shared food halls, food courts, and concourses. It remains open to both new construction and redevelopment projects where an existing food court or common-area dining program can be refreshed or expanded.

For landlords, developers, and brokers, Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen offers an experienced, institutional-scale operator with a long history in enclosed malls, outlet centers, airports, travel plazas, universities, and casinos. Backed by a multi-brand parent and able to fit into small to medium footprints, the concept brings a recognizable pizza and Italian option that can support everyday traffic and complement broader dining lineups in high-traffic properties.