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Carrabba's set to fire up grill

The wait will end soon. The Italian restaurant is opening Oct. 23 in a retail hot spot on State Road 50.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published October 11, 2006

SPRING HILL - It's finally official.

The date has been set.

Coming soon is almost here.

Hernando County's much-anticipated first Carrabba's is scheduled to open at 4 p.m. Oct. 23 at Mariner Boulevard and State Road 50. Opening night figures to be a sight to be seen. Folks around here have been waiting a long time to be able to eat at the popular Tampa-based Italian chain without driving down to Port Richey.

"People have been calling us and e-mailing us for literally years," joint venture partner Joe Pante said Monday. "We've had people stopping by and asking us when it's going to open. It's been a lot more actually than I've seen in other places in the past."

Carrabba's is the latest addition to Hernando's hottest hot spot. SunTrust Bank/Nature Coast chief executive Jim Kimbrough calls the stretch of SR 50 between U.S. 19 and the Brooksville exit off the Suncoast Parkway a "major center of retail and restaurant activity and automobile dealerships and banks and you name it." There's already the Chick-fil-A, the Ruby Tuesday and the Johnny Carino's, and now the Carrabba's is here. Panera Bread, Old Navy and Linens 'n Things are expected to open on the strip next year.

"Hernando County is hoppin' and boppin'," said Pat Crowley, executive director of the Greater Hernando County Chamber of Commerce.

Carrabba's started in 1986. Now the chain has more than 200 locations around the country. The restaurant did $580-million in sales last year, according to Aaron Allen, a restaurant consultant who runs the Quantified Marketing Group near Orlando.

It was also the highest-rated Italian chain in the restaurant rankings over the summer in Consumer Reports magazine.

In the Tampa Bay area, there are Carrabba's in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Carrollwood, Temple Terrace, South Tampa, Brandon, Port Richey and Citrus Park. New restaurants are opening in Plant City and Wesley Chapel in 2007.

But the current spotlight is on Hernando.

"It's growing by leaps and bounds here," said Ben Eldridge, the onsite operating partner, "and I think the people want more variety."

Eldridge is 34 and lives in Spring Hill. His career with Carrabba's mirrors the company's expansion in the area and the development of the Tampa Bay area and the North Suncoast as a whole.

He started in Carrollwood 12 years ago.

He was the operating partner at the Port Richey location for seven years.

Now he's up here.

The new 217-seat, 5,976-square-foot Carrabba's is the result of about three years of site selection, planning and zoning necessities, permitting and construction.

One afternoon last week, the inside of the restaurant smelled like new carpet and wood. The porch ceiling fans were on. Most parts of the parking lot still had to be lined.

But employees have been hired. Training starts Monday.

Half of the proceeds of business on Oct. 23, Eldridge said, will go to the Pasco-Hernando Lighthouse for the Blind.

"We do expect the opening to be big," Pante said.

Just not TOO big.

"We're hopeful it will be somewhat stabilized," he said. "We're hopeful it's going to be something we can handle."

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified October 10, 2006, 22:15:57]