The Round Table

Few investment decisions carry the weight of a franchise commitment, and for good reason — the U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that franchise investors deploy anywhere from hundreds of thousands to over a million dollars into a single concept, with the outcome depending heavily on brand strength, unit economics, and the staying power of the underlying concept. Round Table Pizza, operating under The Round Table franchise brand, answers the central question franchise investors ask before writing a check: does this brand have the history, the growth trajectory, and the operational infrastructure to justify the capital commitment? The answer begins in 1959, when founder Bill Larson opened the first location in Menlo Park, California, establishing what would become one of the most recognized pizza franchise brands on the West Coast. Larson began franchising just three years later in 1962, giving The Round Table franchise one of the longest continuous franchising histories in the American quick-service restaurant sector. Today, The Round Table franchise operates over 429 locations across the United States, with a dominant concentration of more than 340 restaurants in California alone — representing 84% of its total footprint — and a growing expansion push into Texas, Nevada, Colorado, and the Pacific Northwest. The brand is now part of FAT Brands Inc., a global franchising company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that owns 18 restaurant concepts and operates over 2,300 locations worldwide, providing The Round Table franchise with the corporate infrastructure, purchasing scale, and operational expertise of a major multi-concept franchisor. David Pear serves as President of Round Table Pizza as of 2025, leading a brand that was ranked 12th on Entrepreneur Magazine's 2021 list of best pizza franchise brands, cementing its position as an industry leader within the West Coast pizza segment. For franchise investors evaluating the pizza category, The Round Table franchise occupies a meaningful position: a legacy brand with over six decades of operational history, a defined geographic stronghold, and a clearly articulated expansion strategy targeting 500 locations within the next two years.

The pizza industry represents one of the most resilient segments within American food service, and the macro data supports the category's sustained appeal to franchise investors. The U.S. pizza market generates tens of billions in annual revenue, with the broader quick-service restaurant sector consistently outperforming sit-down dining in periods of economic uncertainty as consumers trade down from full-service concepts while maintaining their appetite for affordable, family-friendly meals. Consumer trends driving demand for The Round Table franchise concept include the ongoing preference for family-oriented dining destinations, the explosive growth of delivery and pickup as permanent behavioral shifts accelerated by pandemic-era habits, and the increasing consumer appetite for ghost kitchen and virtual brand models that extend a restaurant's revenue surface without proportional increases in fixed overhead. Round Table Pizza has responded directly to these trends by launching its first ghost kitchen concept in partnership with CloudKitchens in Los Angeles, California — a format described by industry observers as "incredibly popular" for expanding pickup and delivery revenue — and by introducing the "Round Table Pizza Clubhouse - Pizza Pub Play" format featuring arcade games for children and big-screen sports programming, targeting the family entertainment segment that commands higher per-visit spending and repeat traffic. The competitive dynamics in the pizza category are characterized by the dominance of several large national chains operating at massive scale, but The Round Table franchise has carved a defensible niche through premium quality positioning, community involvement, and a physical format that provides experiential dining in addition to carry-out and delivery, giving franchisees multiple revenue streams within a single location. Technomic's 2024 report recorded 391 U.S. units for the brand, and the pipeline of approximately 200 franchise agreements in development as of April 2025 signals that franchisee demand is outpacing current supply — a positive leading indicator for category momentum. For investors evaluating secular tailwinds, the suburban residential markets where Round Table Pizza locations typically thrive — areas with median household incomes above $65,000 and dense residential populations within a three-mile radius — represent stable, high-recurring-demand trade zones that insulate the concept from urban foot traffic volatility.

The Round Table franchise investment is structured across two distinct models, each calibrated to different capital profiles and market contexts, giving prospective franchisees a meaningful degree of flexibility in how they enter the system. The Delivery Carry Out Unit model, or DCU model, carries a total initial investment range of $347,300 to $505,250, positioning it as the more accessible entry point within the system and comparable to mid-tier pizza franchise investment thresholds nationally. The Dine-In model, which captures the full brand experience including family dining, arcade entertainment, and sports viewing, requires a total initial investment ranging from $504,100 to $1,091,500, reflecting the additional capital required for larger footprint buildouts, enhanced furniture and fixture packages, and expanded technology infrastructure. The initial franchise fee across both models is $25,000, which is competitive within the pizza franchise category where initial fees for comparable legacy brands frequently exceed $30,000 to $50,000. Key investment line items for the Dine-In model include $115,000 to $600,000 for real estate and improvements — a range that reflects the significant variation between conversion of existing restaurant space versus ground-up buildout — $145,000 to $295,000 for furniture, fixtures, and equipment, $35,100 to $59,000 for point-of-sale systems and related technology, and $7,500 for opening inventory and smallwares. Training-related travel and living expenses add $1,500 to $3,500 to the pre-opening cost structure. Ongoing fees include a royalty rate of 4.00% of net sales — or a minimum floor of $750 per month, whichever is greater — and a national brand fund advertising contribution of 4.00% of net sales, bringing the combined ongoing fee obligation to 8.00% of net sales, which is within the normal range for established pizza franchise systems. Prospective franchisees are required to demonstrate a minimum of $200,000 in liquid capital and a net worth of $500,000, requirements that reflect the capital intensity of the concept while remaining accessible to experienced small business operators who have built equity through prior ventures. Additional recurring fees include transfer fees, renewal fees, and remedial training fees currently set at $300 per employee or agent, costs that are material to long-term ownership economics and should be modeled carefully in any investment underwriting. As a subsidiary of FAT Brands Inc. — a publicly traded franchising company — The Round Table franchise benefits from the institutional credibility and financial stability of a corporate parent with 18 concepts and over 2,300 locations under management, a factor that influences SBA lender confidence when evaluating financing applications.

The daily operating model of The Round Table franchise is decidedly hands-on, and the brand is explicit that this is not a passive investment vehicle. Franchisees are expected to dedicate full-time effort to their business, ensuring consistent supervision either personally or through a designated manager who has completed the brand's training certification requirements. The brand's staffing model reflects the dual revenue stream of dine-in and delivery operations, requiring franchisees to manage kitchen production teams, front-of-house staff for the dining room experience, and delivery logistics simultaneously — a complexity that rewards operators with prior restaurant management experience or transferable multi-unit retail management backgrounds. The training program is comprehensive: new franchisees complete approximately three hours of online orientation, followed by 15 days of hands-on training at a designated training location to build practical operational competency, and three days of on-site training at the franchisee's own store immediately before the grand opening. A more granular breakdown from the franchise disclosure documentation references 180 hours of on-the-job training and 24 hours of classroom instruction, totaling a structured pre-opening education investment that is meaningfully above the industry average for quick-service pizza concepts. Advanced training is periodically available to franchisees and their management teams to maintain alignment with evolving best practices and brand standards. On the support side, the corporate team at Round Table Pizza maintains what franchisees describe as an "open culture," with personnel including the President accessible and responsive to calls and concerns — a quality of responsiveness that distinguishes the brand from larger systems where franchisee access to corporate leadership is structurally limited. Corporate collaborates with franchisees on a quarterly basis through business forums designed to review new concepts, gather franchisee feedback on operational initiatives, and surface emerging market intelligence. Territory rights are structured as non-exclusive site selection areas in most cases, with an exclusive radius of one mile around each restaurant being the standard grant, though this exclusivity may be modified in densely populated urban markets including San Francisco, specific sectors of Los Angeles, San Jose, San Diego, and Portland. The brand's co-branded Round Table Pizza and Fatburger unit in California illustrates the creative format flexibility available through the FAT Brands Inc. ecosystem, a structural advantage that opens non-traditional real estate opportunities for franchisees willing to explore co-tenancy models.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document for The Round Table franchise, which means prospective investors must construct their unit economics analysis from available third-party and historical sources rather than from system-wide performance benchmarks published by the franchisor. However, the brand's 2019 FDD did disclose financial performance data that provides a meaningful baseline: the Dine-In model reported an average revenue per unit of $1,037,816, while the DCU model reported an average revenue per unit of $730,592, giving investors a model-specific revenue reference point even if more current disclosure is absent. Separately reported gross revenue figures of $1,087,024 have been cited as exceeding sub-sector averages significantly, a claim consistent with the brand's premium quality positioning and its target demographic of suburban households with median incomes above $65,000. To estimate owner economics from these revenue figures, investors should apply the combined ongoing fee obligation of 8.00% of net sales to the $1,037,816 Dine-In average — producing approximately $83,025 in combined royalty and ad fund payments annually — and then model food costs (typically 28% to 32% of revenue in the pizza category), labor costs (typically 28% to 35%), occupancy costs (typically 8% to 12%), and miscellaneous operating expenses to arrive at restaurant-level operating margins. Using conservative industry-standard cost assumptions against the $1,037,816 Dine-In average revenue figure, a well-managed location could generate restaurant-level EBITDA in the range of $100,000 to $180,000 annually before debt service and franchisee compensation, implying a potential payback period of three to seven years depending on buildout costs, financing structure, and local market performance. It is critical to note, as all rigorous franchise analysis must, that revenue is not equivalent to profit, and individual location performance will vary materially based on local competition, lease economics, operator quality, and market demographics. Prospective investors should request the most current FDD from the franchisor, engage an independent franchise attorney to review all disclosure documents, and speak directly with a statistically significant sample of existing franchisees before committing capital.

The Round Table franchise growth trajectory over the past several years reflects both the operational resilience of the brand and the ambitions of its parent company, FAT Brands Inc. As of July 2021, the system operated approximately 450 restaurants worldwide, comprising 372 franchise locations and 72 company-owned locations spanning seven states and several countries. Technomic's 2024 report measured 391 U.S. units, and current estimates place operational locations at over 429, reflecting a system that has absorbed post-pandemic market normalization while maintaining a solid base from which to grow. The most significant forward-looking signal is the pipeline of approximately 200 franchise agreements in development as of April 2025, a backlog that — if executed — would drive the system toward its stated target of 500 locations within the next two years and represents a potential unit growth rate exceeding 15% to 20% from current levels. The brand's geographic expansion strategy is targeted and data-driven: recent grand openings include a third Las Vegas location on October 4, 2025, a San Marcos, Texas location on July 31, 2025 in partnership with operator Brame Brands, and new market entries in San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Colorado, and a fifth unit in the Reno area. The competitive moat for The Round Table franchise is built on several reinforcing pillars: over six decades of brand equity and consumer recognition in the western United States, a premium quality positioning that commands higher average transaction values than value-tier pizza competitors, the scale advantages of operating within the FAT Brands Inc. multi-concept portfolio, and the strategic deployment of the ghost kitchen and co-branded format innovations that extend the brand's market surface without proportional capital investment. The introduction of the Round Table Pizza Clubhouse format — with its combination of arcade entertainment, family dining, and sports programming — represents a direct response to the experiential dining trend that is driving traffic to concepts capable of offering more than a transactional meal, differentiating The Round Table franchise from purely delivery-oriented competitors.

The ideal candidate for The Round Table franchise investment is an experienced operator with demonstrated management capabilities, sufficient capital reserves to weather the initial operating period, and a genuine commitment to active, on-site franchise management rather than absentee ownership. Multi-unit franchisees within the system, including operators managing growing Texas footprints through structured development agreements with Brame Brands, illustrate the brand's appetite for area development partnerships with capitalized, operationally experienced franchisee groups. The best-performing markets for The Round Table franchise are suburban areas with median household incomes exceeding $65,000, dense residential populations within a three-mile trade radius, and strong family demographic profiles — market characteristics prevalent across the California cities that account for 329 of the brand's approximately 429 locations, as well as emerging suburban markets in Nevada, Washington, and Texas. Washington State's 27 locations representing 7% of system volume and Nevada's 15 locations demonstrate that the brand travels successfully beyond its California stronghold when the right demographic and competitive conditions are present. Territory rights provide a standard one-mile exclusivity radius, though franchisees considering urban markets in San Francisco, Los Angeles sector zones, San Jose, San Diego, or Portland should carefully review the modified exclusivity provisions in the FDD before committing to those markets. The franchise agreement term length and renewal terms, as well as transfer and resale provisions — including applicable transfer fees — should be reviewed in detail with independent legal counsel as a core component of any investment due diligence process. The timeline from signed franchise agreement to grand opening varies based on real estate selection, permitting, and buildout complexity, with the three-day pre-opening on-site training component marking the final milestone before doors open to the public.

The Round Table franchise opportunity sits at an analytically interesting intersection of legacy brand equity, aggressive expansion planning, and the institutional backing of a multi-concept franchisor with global scale. With over 429 operational locations, a pipeline of approximately 200 signed franchise agreements, a stated goal of reaching 500 locations within two years, and a five-year store count growth projection of up to 20%, the brand is in an active growth phase that creates meaningful first-mover advantages for franchisees who secure territory in emerging markets like Texas, Colorado, and Nevada before saturation sets in. The investment range of $347,300 to $1,091,500 across two distinct format types, combined with a $25,000 franchise fee, 4.00% royalty, and 4.00% advertising contribution, positions The Round Table franchise as a mid-to-premium tier pizza investment whose economics are most compelling for operators who combine strong local market selection with disciplined, owner-operator engagement. The FAT Brands Inc. corporate infrastructure — 18 concepts, over 2,300 global locations, institutional purchasing power, and a publicly traded parent company — provides a layer of operational and financial backing that is relevant to both franchisee success rates and lender confidence. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark The Round Table franchise investment against comparable pizza and quick-service restaurant concepts across every relevant financial and operational dimension. For any investor conducting serious research into the pizza franchise category, the combination of The Round Table franchise's six-decade history, its alignment with suburban family demographic trends, its ghost kitchen and experiential dining format innovations, and its aggressive growth pipeline makes it a concept that demands rigorous, data-informed evaluation. Explore the complete The Round Table franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data.