When chef Patrick Mangold-White suddenly died three years ago, he left not only a hole in the hearts of his loved ones, but a couple restaurants suddenly having to navigate without a captain as well. Then Billy Canu came in.
“Kaos Pizzeria came to us and asked if we would be interested [in buying in], and it’s been amazing, we more than doubled the revenue,” said Canu about Mangold-White’s pizza concept. “It’s really rewarding.”
Kaos was the second restaurant Canu acquired. His first was Oblio’s Pizza in Park Hill, which he bought with Drew Leach. The pair met through Leach’s wife, who partnered with Canu to run a string of national studios dubbed Yoga Box.
At first the two looked into opening their own space. Leach had owned a pizza restaurant for a few years, and Canu wanted to get into the restaurant game. But as they searched, they realized how many established businesses were for sale. One of those was Oblio’s, which came with a side of neighborhood nostalgia. So, they bought it.
This was the beginning of 2023, and since then the revenue of Oblio’s Pizza has increased sevenfold. To get there, said Canu, he looked at the operations, found out where the pitfalls were, invested in a remodel, and helped streamline service to be efficient.
“He is a wizard at marketing and he drives in so much business it’s almost foolproof ,” said Leach over the phone. “It’s really funny, I don’t think he even realizes, but all it takes is one phone call from Billy and he changes lives.”
Colorado restaurants were always on the California-based Canu’s radar. Better Future launched around 2011 after Canu spent years working for companies such as Spotify, Ray Ban, and Warner Brothers. He helped a friend open Fox & Jane Salon and they became business partners. Then he reinvested the proceeds and grew his mini empire of small businesses. Today that includes ones focused on fitness, health, and beauty. Restaurants are the newest venture.
After Oblio’s, Canu repeated the process with Kaos Pizzeria. And now the latest, Una Mas Taqueria, both previously owned by Mangold-White.
“We had some investors that wanted to get out and he was able to take their shares,” said Una Mas Taqueria’s director of operations, Brian Forrester. “He is super honest about his intentions and he offers direction towards improvements and things that have to happen, but there’s data, marketing, and research behind it.”
Part of the push to help these concepts grow came in creating the online presence, exposing the restaurant on social media, getting reviews on Yelp and Google, and integrating with delivery platforms such as Grubhub and DoorDash.
“Nothing he suggests is out of reach or oppositional, they are great suggestions that lead to implementations,” explained Forrester. ““He didn’t come in to change everything, he just got the wheel moving downhill faster.”
While Canu’s dedication to Denver eateries over the last few years appears off the cuff, it’s actually a homecoming for him. While he lives and works out of California, Canu grew up in Denver’s City Park. He remembers going to neighborhood spots like Pete’s Kitchen and working as a teenager at Liks Ice Cream.
“Denver is the city that made me and it’s the city that now I am doing this in,” said Canu over the phone. “It’s interesting, I always wanted to do a restaurant but it never felt right, but due to these unfortunate events it pushed me into this thing and it feels like an honor to do it.”
While Canu doesn’t have immediate plans to take over another struggling spot right now, he said he’s open to the possibility. And, for the fans of these three places, they can rest assured the restaurants will stick around for much longer.
