Tampa spawns new chain concepts amid population boom

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 16, 2000 by Jack Hayes

Founded more than a decade ago by Houston's Restaurants veterans Dave Mason and Tom Schelldorf, the Hops group currently operates 75 high-energy units in 32 markets across 12 states. Magruder's strategy is to push the brand through the 100-store threshold by as soon as the end of next year and grow the chain into a 500-unit system over the next several years.

Meanwhile, Hops co-founder Mason is mentoring two other Hops veterans -- former senior operations vice president Tim Curci and former operations vice president Chris Parker -- as the partners fine-tune their 8-month-old Bonefish Grill concept. On track to gross $3 million with their 165-seat dinner-only seafood concept, Curci and Parker plan to open at least two more Tampa sites of Bonefish Grill before taking the upscale-casual brand southward along Florida's Gulf Coast into the Sarasota and Fort Myers markets.

Meanwhile, Hops co-founder Schelldorf is putting his energy behind a hot new family-casual theme concept, called Fred Fleming's Famous Bar-B-Que. Building from the brand's original site on Fourth Street North in St. Petersburg, the Fred Fleming's Famous group has opened a second unit, on Gulf To Bay Boulevard in Clearwater, Fla., and is scouting sites in and beyond the Tampa Bay area.

"We've created something with character, but not too much to turn off the mainstream customer," said Bonefish Grill's Chris Parker, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, who said the concept's popularity results in 45-minute waits as early as 6 p.m.

"One thing we've learned from our combined 37 years in this industry is that a good concept not only looks right from the outside and feels right when you walk in but also stays right for the whole experience," Curci added. "We're focused on running strings of good shifts, not having a hiccup every day and a half."