Avalanche Food Group was founded in 2009, but the history of
the Rosa brothers, Joe, John and Ricky, goes back much further.
Mama and Papa Rosa liked to say they had a souvenir from each place
they lived because one brother was born in each place along their journey.
OUR HISTORY
THE BEGINNING
Mama, Graziella, and Papa, Giovanni, met in grade school on the southern coast of Sicily. They married in 1965 and Joe was born in 1966. When Joe was six months old, he and his mother joined his father and uncles in Brooklyn where they had recently opened a restaurant. John was born in Brooklyn in 1970. The Rosas moved to Texas in 1971 to open a flying pizza restaurant in Houston and Ricky was born there in 1975.
Mama and Papa Rosa opened another flying pizza parlor, La Rosa Flying Pizza, in Bellaire in 1976, La Rosa Ristorante in Sugar Land in 1983 and Pappa La Rosa Italian Restaurant on Westheimer in 1988, the last of which served guests for 18 years. Joe, John and Ricky literally grew up in their family’s restaurants doing homework at a corner table and reconfiguring flour sacks in the stockroom for a game of house or war, depending on the mood. Before long they were washing dishes and eventually waiting tables and working in the kitchen.
Tough Times
The lessons Mama and Papa Rosa imparted to the brothers - don’t buy things with money you don’t have, work hard and live below your means – became all the more valuable when La Rosa Ristorante was forced to close as a result of the 1980s oil bust. It was during these two years before they were able to open Pappa La Rosa, that laid the foundation for the Rosa brothers’ values that they still uphold today. Mama and Papa Rosa moved the freezers from the closed restaurant to their house and the contents were the family’s meals for the next two years. True to their values, the family pulled together and did what was needed to make ends meet. Joe began selling real estate and 16 year old John handed over the money from his job as a Fiesta Mart cashier to his parents so they could buy the necessities for the family. Even young Ricky pitched in, he and his dad starting an impromptu lawn service business in addition to the weekly garage sales the family held. The Rosa brothers clearly remember this time in their lives and, though they learned a lot from it, they vowed to do everything possible to never let it happen again.
Feeding Souls
Joe, John and Ricky had the opportunity to open Pappa La Rosa Flying Pizza in Sugar Land in 2000 where they used a point-of-sale system for the first time in the family’s history. Papa Rosa passed away in 2005 and the doors to Pappa La Rosa closed a year later. Wanting to continue the family tradition of feeding people’s souls as well as their stomachs, the Rosa brothers opened Rosa Ritas, their foray into Tex-Mex, in 2008 in Needville, Texas.
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Then, in 2009, the Rosa brothers separately watched the same Nightline episode on the financial success of “breastaurant” concepts. The brothers’ love of sports and of great scratch-made food was a perfect fit with Twin Peaks. The Rosa brothers visited the headquarters in Dallas, signed the first-ever Twin Peaks franchise contract four months later and opened Twin Peaks Webster in 2010.
THE SHIELD
They put an AFG spin on the Twin Peaks concept, making it their own by ensuring their values of family, accountability and pursuit of greatness were enmeshed in daily operations from the beginning. This set them on an upward trajectory, and they opened seven more locations over the next six years and, in 2021, they cut the ribbon on their ninth location in Bryan, Texas.
Avalanche Expands
Following a search for just the right concept to broaden the portfolio of Avalanche Food Group, the Rosa brothers settled on Bread Zeppelin in 2020 and opened their first location in June 2021. This unique concept is a step forward in their constant evolution and they look forward to opening additional locations.
Award-Winning
Avalanche Food Group prides itself on taking good concepts and making them great. We enjoy partnering with other franchisee groups to develop best practices that then help create a roadmap for future franchisees to follow.
Avalanche opened the first-ever franchise of Twin Peaks in 2010 and in 2011 was recognized as Franchisee of the Year by the International Franchise Association. Twin Peaks awarded their operational excellence with the Twin Peaks Franchisee of the Year award in 2018. While Avalanche was the first, there are now 54 Twin Peaks franchises in the United States, Russia and Latin America. The Rosas opened the first-ever franchise of Bread Zeppelin in 2021 and look forward to expanding.
While proud of our accomplishments, opening our doors every day is still our way of serving people. We look for unique concepts that provide memorable experiences that nourish people and allow them to connect and celebrate life. Come celebrate with us!
