Tag Archives: Florida

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Bonefish Grill struggling as diners’ preferences change

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times

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Bonefish Grill — intended to be the engine powering the growth of Bloomin’ Brands restaurant portfolio — is in dire need of a tune up.

CEO Liz Smith acknowledged Tuesday an alarming second quarter drop in Bonefish sales, down 4.6 percent, and traffic, down 7.8 percent.

Smith blamed an expanded menu at the seafood restaurant chain that added “too much complexity” and ultimately “compromised the core dining experience and service suffered.”

She said the company plans to focus on what made Bonefish Grill successful in the first place: the chain’s “polished casual heritage,” and its “fish expertise.” And the Bang Bang Shrimp isn’t going anywhere.

Outside experts say Tampa’s homegrown seafood chain faces bigger problems than its menu.

Read more here.

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Tampa Bay tries to stand out in wave of lists and rankings

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times


We are a nation of lists and rankings.

Top places to retire. Top party spots. Best beaches. Best cities for runners. Worst cities for runners. Top dining destinations. Best place to launch a business. Most romantic cities. Least romantic cities. Best cities to buy a home. Top cities for dogs. America’s sweatiest cities. (No joke; Tampa, by the way, is tops).

Lists and rankings are everywhere — our inboxes, our Facebook feeds, on nearly every website we visit.

They often include Tampa Bay cities. St. Petersburg is No. 1 for millennials in Florida. Tampa is the nation’s second-best beer town. Clearwater Beach has a bevy of “best beach” titles.

And on and on. Enough already, right?

“There’s a new list out every minute, it seems,” said Patrick Harrison, vice president of marketing and communication for Visit Tampa Bay, the tourism marketing arm of Hillsborough County. “Once the Internet took off, lists took over as the first true form of clickbait, but now you’re seeing them from lesser-known websites and media outlets.”

Read more here. 

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Stores like Bass Pro Shops and Restoration Hardware add restaurants and bars

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times

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How about a glass of wine to celebrate the $11,230 purchase of a Parisian burnham leather recliner from Restoration Hardware?

 At the new Restoration Hardware store opening in International Plaza this fall, shoppers won’t have to go farther than the three-story retailer’s rooftop garden bar for some wine and hors d’oeuvres. Tampa is among the first cities in the country to get a Restoration Hardware gallery store concept, which is currently under construction next to the Capital Grille at Bay Street. When it opens in November, Restoration Hardware will be one of several retail chains in the Tampa Bay area that let customers eat and drink where they shop — a trend that has been revived by names like Nordstrom, Bass Pro Shops, IKEA and others in recent years in an effort to give shoppers more reasons to come to brick and mortar stores.
The basic proxy is that the longer you keep people in the store, the more stuff they’re going to buy,” said Steve Kirn, executive director of the David F. Miller Retailing Education and Research Center at the University of Florida. “They want you to linger longer and take in the sights, tastes and smells you’re not going to get from an LED screen if you’re shopping online.”
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A good cup of joe wasn’t always easy to find in the Tampa Bay area.

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times

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A good cup of joe wasn’t always easy to find in the Tampa Bay area.

Take it from Billy Hutchings, a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur. He has traveled all over the country for work and always stops to sample the local espresso.

“If you see a roaster in-house, that’s a telltale sign the coffee is going to be better than Starbucks,” Hutchings said Thursday from a couch inside Buddy Brew Coffee on Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa. “It’s all about the appreciation of the craft. The people here are taking the time to make this special cup for us.”

Similar to the craft beer movement that has exploded in Tampa Bay, locally roasted coffee is on the up-and-up. The people here demand a better cup of coffee, and they’re willing to go out of their way to find it.

“Coffee has its own culture now. Starbucks was so 2005. This next generation — the millennials — want their own identity when it comes to coffee,” said Brian Connors of Connors Davis Hospitality, a global food and beverage consulting firm in Fort Lauderdale. “Similar to wine, coffee nerds appreciate the taste. And they want their money to go back into a community they feel a part of.”

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Nordstrom could save Southgate Mall, but opening is unlikely

By Justine Griffin for the Herald-Tribune

SARASOTA – It’s a rumor that began as an offhand comment from one retail developer to another.

But it took on a life of its own from there.

The possibility of Nordstrom, the Seattle-based, high-end department store chain, coming to Sarasota County was too good to keep quiet for too long.

But it’s not exactly the story one would expect.

Nordstrom, along with its luxury competitor, Neiman Marcus, were slated to anchor the Mall at University Town Center when plans for the $315 million mall were still in its infancy six years ago. But both brands abandoned those notions during the Great Recession as their interest in expanding into the Sarasota market fizzled out.

Southwest Florida residents would continue to drive to Tampa’s International Plaza to the north, or Naples’ Waterside Shops to the south for Nordstrom’s one-of-a-kind customer experience, as they’ve always done.

But now, people are talking about Nordstrom opening a department store in Westfield Group’s Southgate Mall. Nordstrom would reportedly take over the 97,000-square-foot anchor shell left vacant by Dillard’s, which departed Southgate late last year after opening a new two-story store in the Mall at University Town Center.

Read more here.