It is a Sunday evening in early August and while most of Paris has decamped to the beach, outside Pizzeria Popolare in the city’s trendy 2nd arrondissement, millennials are queueing up waiting for the Italian restaurant to open.
The establishment does not take bookings so they have come early to be sure of getting their hands on its trademark €5 Neapolitan margherita pizzas. It opened in April and each day 1,300 diners pass through its doors. Pizzeria Popolare is part of the Big Mamma food group, and since it opened its first restaurant in Paris two years ago it has shaken up the French capital’s restaurant scene — typically associated with haute cuisine and bistronomie rather than homemade Italian street food.
The group has grown to six restaurants, employs more than 400 people, and this year will close a €20m fundraising round at a valuation of just over €100m, according to investors, to fund a European expansion. Last year it recorded revenues of €15m, which it expects to more than double this year.