Pinstripes (PNST, PNST-WT) made its public debut via SPAC on Tuesday morning. The dining and entertainment brand looks to capitalize on the growing trend of consumers buying into experiences and events rather than merchandise.

Pinstripes Founder and CEO Dale Schwartz joins Yahoo Finance to discuss how the company will try to capitalize on its public debut and expand the business to new locations and markets.

"Our view was that, internationally, all the same experiential trends pre-COVID, were maybe lagging international markets by a couple of years," Schwartz says on international market opportunities. "Somewhat thanks to COVID, there is no lag. Everybody in the UK, Australia, Dubai, etc., didn't have an option but to transact online. So we are looking."

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Video Transcript

- And so Dale, for people who aren't familiar with the brand. I mean, I'm in DC, so I know, we have one of these over here. But talk about the appeal of this brand, especially in a time where we are starting to see consumers perhaps tighten their purse strings more than usual as they're living with the lingering effects of inflation.

DALE SCHWARTZ: Sure. Well, everything we do is to connect people and have people gather, celebrate, and spend time together. That certainly was accentuated during COVID. Zoom is effective, but not as exciting as just spending quality time together. So that's what we do. 17 years ago, we started, that was the original passion vision, still is. And with the Amazon effect and a lot of the trends for experiential, we're right in the sweet spot in doing so.

And frankly, one of the key differentiators with us is, if you have been, Rachelle, to Georgetown or Bethesda and the greater DC market, our food is phenomenal. So our scratch kitchen is one of the key differentiators, as is our private event space. We do weddings, and over 1,000 private events a year at each location.

- And it's interesting because Pinstripes, it does really connect a lot of different things. You mentioned services, you mentioned food, obviously activities as well. So talk about expansion plans. When you're looking at particular cities, what are you looking for in the demographics or in the region when you're looking for the most upside that you can get for your locations?

DALE SCHWARTZ: Sure. Well expansion, we're planning to open about 150 Pinstripes locations all over the US. Internationally, we'll look to do an equal number with partners. And when we're opening locations, we like the education and sophisticated markets. We certainly also like to cluster locations.

So Georgetown, Bethesda is a good example, as is San Mateo, and Walnut Creek coming in a few months, and we have four locations in Chicago. We also quite like the attractive co-tendencies of a lot of high quality projects that are being redeveloped. So in Topanga, we're next to Hermes. We're often next to Apple. So all of that is what informs our site selection.

- And so in terms of international expansion then, what are some of the markets that you're looking at there. Being that it is still a very uncertain environment in terms of how different countries are battling inflation and different governments are incentivizing, and the cost of living is still relatively high for people.

DALE SCHWARTZ: No. Our view is that internationally all the same experiential trends pre-Covid, were maybe lagging international markets by a couple of years. Somewhat thanks to COVID, there is no lag. Everybody in the UK, Australia, Dubai, et cetera, didn't have an option but to transact online.

So we're looking, and have been looking for a number of years in those markets, Mexico City, and quite a number of others. Much like some of our peers that have forged partnerships overseas, we'll look to do the same. But the overall dynamics and trends and appetite, pun intended, towards experiential dining entertainment is there overseas.