Palm Coast Bonefish Postponed
Company is not planning any new restaurants this year. Palm Coast will have to wait.
Palm Coast, FL – May 25, 2008 – In a January "Rumor," I posted that Bonefish Restaurant was considering a Palm Coast location in the Palm Harbor Shopping Center. I just learned from a City of Palm Coast source that Bonefish has decided to postpone any plans for new locations until 2009. They are not rejecting Palm Coast. They are simply adjusting expansion plans to the current economy.
Bonefish is operated by OSI Partners, Inc., the same people who run Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Roy’s, Flemings, and Cheeseburger in Paradise.
Bonefish Restaurant
If they base their decision on their experience with Outback they might make a false conclusion. I like Outback restaurants, however, ours here is the worst one I know. It is terribly noisy and the food is not as good as at other Outbacks. Besides, there is a limit as to how much you raise your prices in a short time.
OSI Cutting Back Nationwide
This shouldn’t come as a surprise since OSI announced some time ago that it was cutting back drastically to try to improve the overall health of the company. they’ve had some management shake-ups and have closed a number of Cheeseburger in Paradise locations. It’s been rumored that they are trying to sell off CiP, Roy’s, Flemings, and perhaps others.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that Lee Roy Selmon (perhaps with investors) recently acquired controlling interest in Lee Roy Selmon’s from OSI because it wasn’t getting enough attention. On a side note, I think Lee Roy Selmon’s is the best of the OSI concepts I’ve visited.
At some point they’ll get their act together, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Carrabba’s, and maybe a Bonefish, here in 2009. (Though I’d rather see a CiP and a Selmon’s.)