In early March, seafood restaurant chain Bonefish Grill (www.bonefishgrill.com) will open an in-line location at the Town Center Aventura on Biscayne Blvd. in north Miami-Dade in South Florida. The unit is about 6454 square feet with seating for 288 including about twelve on the patio. Owned by Tampa-Based Bloomin’ Brands Inc. (813/282-1225 www.bloominbrands.com) Bonefish Grill specializes in market-fresh fish from all over the world. The fish is prepared over a wood-burning grill and then paired with original sauces or toppings made from premium ingredients. Its bar offering includes regional craft beers as well as hand-crafted and seasonal cocktails. Introduced in St. Petersburg, Florida about 15 years ago, Bonefish Grill has grown to more than 200 restaurants across the country and continues to explore the possibility of new locations…….
Featuring its proprietary 14-filter ‘Brooklynized’ water system to make its authentic New York-style bagels, The Original Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. (561/455-7490 www.brooklynwaterbagels.com) will open two more Florida locations in the Spring. The quick casual restaurants are opening at 2554 N. University Dr. at NW 25th Ct. in Coral Springs and at 601 SE 3rd Ave. at SE 6th St. in Fort Lauderdale. The units will feature the chain’s new design and the chain plans to continue growing the chain with both franchises and corporately owned units. Based in Delray Beach, the seven year old chain currently operates about 20 locations, the majority being in Florida……..
In late January, luxury dine-in theatre chain, iPic Theatres (www.ipictheatres.com) started construction on a new 40,000 square foot eight-screen luxury movie theatre at the Intercoastal Mall in North Miami Beach. The Boca Raton-based iPic Theatres had previously reported that this was one of three theatres under development in greater Miami but the others were not identified. A location is also scheduled to open in Delray Beach later this year. The theatres allow patrons to order and dine on gourmet food and cocktails in the plush seating. Introduced in 2006, iPic Theatres currently operates about ten locations in seven states and more are under development. Only one theatre, in Boca Raton, is in Florida…….
Hurricane AMT LLC and RREMC Restaurants LLC (561/684-2101), franchisees of eight Hurricane Grill & Wings and 39 Denny’s locations respectively in 14 states has reached an agreement to outsource all IT services to Datum Corp. (941/256-8700 www.datumcorporation.com), a national technology consulting company specializing in the multi-unit restaurant industry. Datum is providing dedicated resources to complete the integration of the restaurant back office solution Compeat, while also taking over corporate store and enterprise-level support. In addition, Datum will be installing business-grade firewalls system wide as part of Hurricane AMT and RREMC’s security initiative. The restaurants are taking advantage of fully managed IT services from Datum, including network risk assessment and monitoring, menu programming, on-site and remote support, dedicated software specialists, etc. “Our outsourcing model provides executives the opportunity to shift their attention from managing complex, and often inefficient IT environments, to focusing on growing their business,” said Tom Frost, CEO of Datum Corp……..
Dallas businessman, Applebee’s franchisee and President, CEO of SSCP Management Inc. Sunil Dharod, reported in late January that the Roy’s Restaurant (www.roysrestaurant.com) chain has been added to his restaurant portfolio. Late in 2014, Tampa, Florida-based Bloomin’ Brands Inc. announced an agreement to sell its interest in the Roy’s concept to United Ohana LLC, a new division of Dharod’s SSCP Management Inc. (972/644-9494). Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cheryl Green, Vice President of Human Resources for SSCP Management, Inc. confirmed that Roy’s current management team will remain in place and will continue to be led by the current president, Rick Scott. Roy Yamaguchi founded the Roy’s brand in 1988 in Honolulu, Hawaii and the brand, with its Pacific Rim cuisine, has since grown to 29 restaurants in the United States, Japan and Guam. Dharod, who has been involved in the restaurant industry for over thirty years with multiple concepts, is also the owner of the Apple Texas Group which owns and operates 69 Applebee’s restaurants located throughout Texas…..
Just months after announcing its franchise program, casual sports bar concept Walk-On’s Enterprises (225/330-4533) has signed its first franchise partner. ‘Co’ Vallet will be opening a Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar (www.walk-ons.com) at 5313 Common St. in Lake Charles in Southwestern Louisiana late in 2015. Presently there are four company-owned restaurants in Louisiana and in January, the company broke ground on a new company-owned restaurant in Houma, Louisiana. Another location is scheduled to open in November in Zachary, with a third planned for Juban Crossing by year’s end. Several additional markets across the Southeastern United States are also on the drawing board……..
Leading off the celebration of its 50th Anniversary, Ruth’s Hospitality Group Inc.(407/333-7440 www.rhgi.com) opens its 144th Ruth’s Chris Steak House restaurant in early February in St. Petersburg, Florida. The unit is on Second Ave. North at downtown’s Sundial, the retail, dining and entertainment center just steps from the city’s waterfront area. In addition, in late January, the Winter Park, Florida-based company announced that it had completed the previously announced sale of substantially all of the assets related to Mitchell’s Fish Market and Mitchell’s/Cameron’s Steakhouse businesses. In mid-November 2014, Ruth’s Hospitality Group had reported the sale agreement with Landry’s Inc., the Houston, Texas-based restaurant company, for the 24 restaurants. At that time, Chairman, President and CEO Michael O’Donnell stated that the company has opened three restaurants in 2014 and two more were expected to open in the first half of 2015. In addition, he added that the company’s franchise partners, having opened three restaurants in 2014, will also be opening two new units in the first half of 2015…...