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When Outback Steakhouse opens its first three Chinese restaurants next year, none will be in the Tampa Bay area.
That's no slight on Outback's hometown, says Chris Sullivan, chief executive of the Tampa restaurant conglomerate. In a speech to the Wharton Club of Greater Tampa Bay last week, Sullivan described the bay area as a great testing ground for new restaurant concepts, but he said the West Coast is more convenient for P.F. Chang's founder Paul Fleming, Outback's partner in the new Chinese venture.
Two of the Paul Lee's Chinese Kitchen restaurants opening in 2004 will be in Fleming's home state of Arizona, with the third in Southern California. Tampa will get a Paul Lee's in February 2005, Sullivan said. That means added competition for the P.F. Chang's at Tampa's WestShore Plaza.
Cheeseburger in Paradise, an Outback concept hatched with singer Jimmy Buffett, hasn't shown up in the bay area, either. Its two locations are Indianapolis, Ind., and Downers Grove, Ill. Next on the Cheeseburger list are Middleton, Wisc., Fredericksburg, Va., and Omaha, Neb.
Sullivan said Paul Lee's Chinese Kitchen will differ from Outback's flagship chain in at least one key way. While curbside takeout accounts for about 11 percent of Outback's sales, at Paul Lee's that figure should reach 20 to 25 percent.