Johnny Carino's fans up a creek

The popular Wesley Chapel restaurant closes to make way for a seafood joint.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published July 3, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - Johnny Carino's is out.

Up the Creek Fish Camp and Grill is in.

The Carino's here closed for good after dinner Friday night. Odd, right? The chain restaurant serving "countryside Italian, " after all, sat on a spot on never-not-clogged State Road 54 near Interstate 75 and at least seemed almost always to be busy and then some.

But here's the deal: The local owners at Al Dente LLC of Tampa cut ties with franchisor Fired Up Inc. of Austin, Texas, and by the end of the year the restaurant will be turned into an Up the Creek, according to Al Dente spokeswoman Pamela Jones.

Up the Creek just opened a location on SR 54 near the Suncoast Parkway as well. On its Web site, the new chain touts 400-gallon saltwater aquariums inside its restaurants and specials like Jim Beam salmon and shrimp and lobster fondue.

This also means Al Dente's remaining Carino's locations in Tampa, Brandon, Spring Hill and Sarasota will be closing by the end of the year, Jones said. Those locations will be turned into different "concepts, " too, although details at this point aren't final.

"It's part of an agreement that I really can't talk about, " she said.

The Carino's in central Pasco County opened not that long ago. It had a ribbon cutting with the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce in October 2004. It was part of the Taste of New Tampa not even two months back.

The housing market is slow, but the overall local restaurant and retail story continues to be more, more, more.

See the major malls to come at the Grove at Wesley Chapel and the Shops at Wiregrass and the Cypress Creek Town Center.

See the cranes and the concrete walls and those many yellow dump trucks and backhoes kicking up all that dust.

See the new Bonefish Grill and the new Rooms to Go and the new Ashley Furniture and the new Mattress Firm and the new Mattress Giant and the new Bagel Bagel Cafe and the new Tijuana Flats.

On Monday, though, Jones, the Al Dente spokeswoman, said central Pasco's still a good place to put a restaurant. It was just that Al Dente didn't want to play with Carino's or the Fired Up franchisor anymore, and the feeling was apparently mutual, and that was pretty much that. The people at Fired Up in Texas didn't want to comment on the specifics of the divorce.

At the Carino's midday on Monday, the paper signs on the doors said CLOSED, the white wood NOW HIRING sign was set behind some bushes off to the side, and one guy was loading liquor bottles into the trunk of a black Nissan Altima.

Gary Smith, 50, of Land O'Lakes pulled into the parking lot in a red pickup truck and asked what was up. He said he had never been to the Carino's because every time he drove by the parking lot looked so packed and he didn't want to wait.

Now it was closed.

"Imagine that, " he said.

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 813 909-4617.

[Last modified July 2, 2007, 20:20:12]