Of the hundreds of types of ethnic restaurants in the United States, Italian restaurants, including pizza chains, boast the largest number. They also offer a variety of opportunities for aspiring franchisees and entrepreneurs and the possibility of coming up with a modification of the concept. Italian restaurants owe their origins in large part to poor immigrants from southern Italy, entrepreneurs who opened small grocery stores, bars, and restaurants in the Italian neighborhoods of the northeast. Restaurants began to serve strong-tasting, familiar foods in large portions at low prices to their ethnic neighbors.

Foods were based on home cooking, including pasta, a paste or dough made from wheat flour and water (more eggs in northern Italy). Spaghetti, from the word spago, which means “string”, is a typical pasta. Macaroni, another pasta, is tubular in shape. In northern Italy, ravioli pasta is filled with cheese or meat; in the south, it may be served in a meatless tomato sauce. Pastas take various forms, each with its own name. Pizza originates from Naples, and it was there that many American soldiers, during World War II, learned to enjoy it.

Pizza eventually made John Schnatter a millionaire; his Papa John’s chain has enriched hundreds of small businessmen. Although independent Italian restaurant owners typify the Italian restaurant business, chain operators are spreading the pasta concept across the country and selling franchises to those qualified by experience and credit rating. The range of Italian-style restaurants available to the franchise is vast, from online food service to high-style restaurants where the guest is greeted by a maitre d’hotel, seated in a luxurious chair and served with polished silver.

A Romano’s Macaroni Grill costs more than $3.5 million to build, equip and open. Just like in upscale Roman restaurants, guests can check out fresh seafood, produce, and other menu items as they enter the restaurant. An extensive menu lists more than 30 items, including breads and pizza baked in a wood-fired oven. The Olive Garden chain, with more than 547 units, is by far the largest of the Italian restaurant chains. As you might guess, many Italian-style restaurants offer pizza and could be called pizzerias stepped up.

Pasta House Co. sells a trademark pizza called Pizza Luna in the shape of a crescent. An appetizer labeled Portobello Frito features mushrooms, as does portobello fettuccine. The Spaghetti Warehouses are located in rehabilitated warehouses in the center and, more recently, in the suburbs of the city. Paul and Bill’s (neither owner is Italian) sells antipastos, salads and sandwiches for lunch and then changes the menu for dinner. Sandwiches are replaced with items like beef scallops with artichokes and mushrooms in a Madeira sauce. Osso bucco (beef shank) is another option. The fries are homemade and a wood-fired oven adds glamor to the baked breads and pizza. Fazoli’s, a Lexington, Kentucky chain, describes itself as fast casual.

Guests place their orders at a counter and then sit down. A restaurant hostess walks around offering unlimited freshly baked complimentary breadsticks. The menu includes spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, chicken parmesan, shrimp and scallop fettuccini, and baked ziti (a medium-sized tubular pasta). The sandwiches, called Submarines, come in seven varieties. Thirty percent of sales are made through a self-service window. The chain’s franchise has about 400 units and is growing. Italian restaurants based on Northern Italian food are likely to offer green spinach noodles served with butter and grated Parmesan cheese. Gnocchi are meatballs made from semolina flour (a coarser grain of wheat).

Saltimbocca (“jumps in the mouth”) is made of thin slices of beef rolled with prosciutto and fontina cheese and cooked in butter and Marsala wine. Mozzarella cheese is made from water buffalo milk. The risotto, which uses rice grown around Milan, is cooked in butter and chicken broth and flavored with Parmesan cheese and saffron.