The Bartolotta brothers, Joe and Paul, grew up in a traditional Italian family in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Embracing their love of good, simple and fresh food served with love, they collaborated on their first signature Italian restaurant in Milwaukee in 1993. Over the next two decades, The Bartolotta Restaurants added 13 more award winning dining concepts in and around the Milwaukee area.
Their newest venture in collaboration with Phoenix Development Partners is Osgood’s, featuring the Bartolotta take on a Fast Casual Restaurant setting. Menu items include the classic Chicago hot dog, Angus Beef hamburgers, and Wisconsin favorites including cheese curds, Johnsonville Brats and frozen custard. Never having developed a Fast Casual-style dining experience and wanting to incorporate a multi-lane drive-thru service, the Bartolottas sought out a company who could help guide them through installing an efficient and properly constructed drive-thru lane for Osgood’s. The Howard Company answered the call to share their years of drive-thru expertise with the Bartolotta group.
The Howard Company sales team met with the Joe Bartolotta, his IT group and marketing department to review site plans and develop the most cohesive layout for the new drive-thru lane. Necessary considerations included a “Y” service lane, offering two ordering stations that would converge to meet the pay and pick-up windows.
The layout needed to take into account under pavement vehicle detection loops, where to put the main menu boards, allow for the correct distances between the order stations and the lane convergence, and the correct curve degrees for vehicles turning in the lanes to approach the pay and pick-up windows.
Defined next was the equipment needed for their full-service drive-thru lane. The menu board size was determined based on their menu content. The Howard also designed and produced full graphic menu transparencies for the new board as well as clearance decals for the awnings. Additional drive-thru options included directional signs, a canopy over the ordering areas for guest protection from the weather and nighttime security, and most importantly, a high quality communication system for clear customer/order taker exchanges to ensure correct food delivery at the pick-up window.
Timing the installation of the equipment was paramount. The Howard team worked with Bartolotta’s construction crew to lay out the optimal time-line for proper installation of all the drive-thru lane items. As a result of the careful planning, all drive-thru lane products were installed on time and on budget, meeting the opening day deadline.
The Howard Company looks forward to continue as the “go-to” source for the Bartolotta development team as they research expansion into other Fast Casual opportunities. Our ability to offer a complete drive-thru lane product line plus respond quickly to Joe Bartolotta’s needs put us ahead of the competition.
1375 N Barker Road
Brookfield, WI 53045
262.782.6000