Francesco Vannucci, the Italian entrepreneur who owns the Brunapoli pizzeria, wants to double his branches in the Región Metropolitana (the Santiago metropolitan region) within three years, from four to eight, according to La Tercera. After that, his goal is to take the brand to Spain.
Brunapoli currently has locations in La Dehesa, Los Dominicos, Vitacura and La Reina. The La Reina location opened two weeks ago, according to the newspaper. Vannucci says his focus is on Santiago's eastern sector, but he is also considering openings in nearby areas. As before, he will look for residential neighborhoods rather than office districts.
The story began with a job that fell through. Vannucci came to Chile for a position at Viña Lapostolle that he did not get. He traveled the country for a month and found no good Neapolitan pizza. He went back to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and returned with a pizzaiolo (pizza maker) from that city. In November 2013 he opened the first location in La Dehesa, with a name inspired by Bruna, his grandmother, who was a baker.
The hardest part, he said, was finding a space. "They looked at me with skepticism. I got a lot of noes", he said. The places that accepted him did not fit his idea of a premium product for an ABC1 audience, the highest-income segment.
The growth plan has several parts. Over the years, Brunapoli's menu shifted from a focus on pizza to offering pasta and restaurant dishes, because customers asked for them. Now Vannucci wants to return to the origin with a new brand focused only on Neapolitan pizza. The first location is planned for the first half of 2027.
The second part is already running: Bottega Bruna, an Italian-style café set up inside the new La Reina location. The company is assessing how it performs. The idea is for it to have its own locations later on, separate from the pizzerias.
The third is reopening Buriana, the luxury restaurant that opened in 2023 on Alonso de Córdova with an investment of US$3 million and closed in 2025. Vannucci admits he neglected that business because he moved to Spain for two years after becoming a father at 50. His family now lives in Chile, and he plans to reopen it within three years, "learning from the mistakes".
That setback also explains why he does not want to open in other regions for now. For him, moving into another region would be like having gone to Spain. First he wants to standardize the operation and give Brunapoli a more corporate structure, "less of a small family business".
To that end, the company is testing a small production center in La Reina. It works as a central kitchen: it prepares sauces, pasta and other recipes for the other locations, so that a pizza tastes the same in Vitacura as in La Dehesa. If the test works, it would move to a larger, standalone space.
Spain is the most distant goal. Vannucci describes it as a dream, not a project, and does not rule out taking the brand to other Latin American countries. La Tercera does not report a date or an investment for that expansion, nor the amount the four new Santiago locations will require.
There are sales figures, however. Vannucci estimates Brunapoli will bill about US$8 million this year, up 5% from the previous year. For 2027 he expects to reach US$10 million.