Tonight’s episode of CNBC’s Restaurant Startup will include the partnership of Hamtramck’s Rock City eatery owners, chef Nikita Sanches and Jessica Imbronone. The engaged rock’n’roll couple will compete for the opportunity to open a pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles and to win the financial backing of investors. (We’ve included the last episode above for you to catch up).
For the “Pie vs. Pie” episode, Sanches and Imbronone named their team Rock City Pies, after his former pie shop at Rust Belt Market in Ferndale. The couple will face Sixpence Pie Co., owned by “two suburban soccer moms” from Southington, Connecticut in a test of their concepts.
In the episode, deemed “the ultimate pastry showdown,” investors and restaurateurs Tim Love and Joe Bastianich will hear pitches from both companies (we’ve included footage from last episode above for you to catch up). Rock City Pies aims to turn its delicious creations into a household name nationwide. Sixpence Pie has become so successful that it outgrew its retail space within two years of opening.
The selected team will receive the keys to a working restaurant in Los Angeles. The team gets 36 hours and $7,500 to make a business plan, create a branding campaign, and start its pop-up restaurant.
Bastianich and Love will decide whether or not they want to invest in the team based on the quality of the branding, the reaction of the diners, and the viability of the business plan.
Sanches is no stranger to business contests. He was among the final four contestants in Hatch Detroit’s small business funding contest in 2012.
You can catch the Restaurant Startup “Pie vs. Pie” episode at 10 p.m. Tuesday (tonight) on CNBC.