As he sits in the back office of a Pita Pit in Kingston, Ont., on a recent Thursday morning, restaurant impresario Peter Mammas is all smiles.
His rosy demeanour defies the tariff storm and customer cutbacks roiling his industry but reflects the optimism he's feeling around the future of his restaurant conglomerate, Foodtastic.
The nine-year-old, Montreal-based business has 1,200 locations across its 27 chains, which include Second Cup, Milestones, Freshii and Quesada. Mammas wants the empire to grow bigger and better, with the goal of tripling its sales to $3 billion in the next five years.
Getting there will mean ensuring whatever duties U.S. President Donald Trump levies next don’t derail a plan Mammas has to dramatically transform pockets of the Foodtastic portfolio.
"Basically anything we're not really in, we're looking to acquire," Mammas said.
While he didn't name his acquisition targets, Mammas said big brands on both sides of the border that specialize in breakfast, quick-serve pizza and burgers, sushi, shawarma, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food are all on his radar.
To make room for them, some smaller Foodtastic brands will likely get dumped.
"I don't want four brands of the same thing. I want to own one and I want to do it properly," Mammas said. "I don't want to cannibalize our franchises or our market with similar competing brands."
Foodtastic's current roster includes some overlap — pub-style restaurants, taco joints and chicken rotisseries.
Sit-down dining brands could be on the chopping block, because "that middle of the market seems to be really suffering" as diners pare back spending, said Jo-Ann McArthur, Nourish Food Marketing's president.
It didn't surprise her that Mammas was reviewing his portfolio and is open to acquisitions because he has a history of identifying chains in distress, such as Second Cup and Freshii, then purchasing and revamping them.
"I certainty wouldn't bet against him," she said.
A quick glance at his brands had her musing that Mammas likely has his eye on more global cuisine, such as Indian food.
Any acquisitions he makes will join previous purchases Noodlebox, a B.C. Chinatown food cart-turned chain, and Jimmy John's, an American business slinging submarine sandwiches made with bread baked fresh at each restaurant and loaded with deli meats sliced daily.
Mammas, who developed Celine Dion-backed delicatessen Nickels in 1990 with his brother, was no stranger to sandwiches but courted Jimmy John's because no one in Canada had cornered the premium portion of the market.
Most people looking for sandwiches went to Subway, but Mammas was unimpressed with its quality and thought the firm's Canadian footprint alone was too big to buy.
The next closest sandwich chain was Mr. Sub. Because it's owned by Foodtastic's biggest competitor MTY Food Group, Mammas figured they'd be unlikely to sell.
"There was nothing else of mass that we could actually buy, so we only had two options: create our own or look down toward the States and see what's available," he said.
South they headed, ultimately striking a franchisor deal that will blanket Canada with 200 Jimmy John's locations by 2034.
The move puts it head-to-head with fellow U.S.-born brands Firehouse Subs and Jersey Mike's, which all have big expansion plans that could be challenged by the buy Canadian movement.
Mammas so far hasn't seen a reason to worry. The balance sheet for Jimmy John's shows him Canadians are liking the chain despite its U.S. origins.
"They think (about the U.S.) when they're grocery shopping, but I'm not sure they do when it's a quick-serve restaurant," McArthur hypothesized. "If it's operated by Canadians, that's enough."
Jimmy John's goes even further.
"The meats, the breads, the cheeses, everything's Canadian, so we don't import anything for Jimmy John's from the States. Even the packaging is done here," Mammas said.
"In fact, the funny part is, the Jimmy John's chips are made in Alberta for all the Jimmy John's in the States."
Other Foodtastic brands didn't have it so easy when Trump started threatening tariffs earlier in the year.
Mammas estimated about 10 per cent of Foodtastic's products came from the U.S.
Half were alcohol, which was swapped for domestic and European booze.
The other five per cent were fruits and vegetables.
The next most obvious place to get them was Mexico, but Mammas had reservations. About a decade ago, lettuce from Mexico would only last four days. California greens could go 12.
Foodtastic ran a test and found Mexican shipments were now nearly as good as U.S. ones — and cost less. Within three weeks, it was bringing in loads from Mexico.
And the menu is just the start.
Much of Foodtastic's kitchen equipment comes from the U.S., so Mammas ditched U.S. freezers and coolers. Fryers and ovens are harder to find elsewhere, but he's testing some from Asia.
Such switches might seem tedious, especially when you're making them across thousands of kitchens, but Mammas sees them as a patriotic duty that must be taken on even though the restaurant industry is facing "a lot of fatigue."
Starting in 2020, tens of thousands of businesses closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was particularly hard on restaurants. Those that survived had to subsist on deliveries and distanced dining until the health crisis passed.
By the time Canadians were shedding their masks and pandemic habits, restaurants were struggling to staff up and inflation was hammering consumer spending and their input costs.
Some consumers reserved eating out for special occasions or ditched dining out altogether.
Then came the tariffs. Foodtastic's sales immediately dipped by two per cent.
Sales bounced back by spring as the buy Canadian sentiment took hold. In the last six weeks, they were so good, Mammas calls them "strong."
But he's not content to sit back and relax.
If the last few years have taught him anything, it's that there's always another challenge headed for restaurants.
"We never get a break," Mammas said with a grin.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2025.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
