Capital Grille to open Oct. 17 at Mall at University Town Center

The Capital Grille under construction at The Mall at University Town Center.
FILE PHOTO 2014

Folks wanting a fine steak dinner at the new Capital Grille will have to wait one extra day.

The Capital Grille at the Mall at University Town Center will open Oct. 17, one day after the new mall opens.

The Capital Grille will be open seven days a week, serving lunch Monday through Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and dinner Monday through Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m. and Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m. The lounge is open daily. Reservations are recommended, but not required. Call 941-256-3647 or visit www.thecapitalgrille.com to make a reservation.

The Capital Grille, owned by Orlando's Darden Restaurants, is known for its dry aged, hand-carved steaks in an upscale environment.

The Capital Grille Sarasota seats about 276 people in the main dining room and three private dining rooms. The Sarasota location will also have a lounge area that extends to an outdoor patio area.

“Sarasota’s thriving business community, coupled with University Town Center’s retail focus, has provided an ideal location to introduce The Capital Grille to the area,” said Timothy Fanning, managing partner of The Capital Grille Sarasota. “We embrace the opportunity to provide guests with our unique dining experience and eagerly await the restaurant’s opening.”

The restaurant's dinner menu includes;

• Dry Aged Porterhouse Steak
• Bone-In Kona Crusted Dry Aged Sirloin with Shallot Butter
• Pan-Fried Calamari with Hot Cherry Peppers
• Lobster and Crab Cakes
• Seared Citrus Glazed Salmon
• Lobster Mac ‘N’ Cheese
• Parmesan Truffle Fries
• Classic Crème Brûlée

For those who don't want to plop down some hefty coin, The Capital Grille offers a lunch menu that features a Kona Crusted Wagyu Burger with Shallot Mayo, and the ‘Plates’ lunch menu, which allows diners a choice of soup or salad and an entrée for $18. The Plates menu offers seasonal selections with a fine dining twist.

The restaurant's wine list features more than 350 selections picked by master sommelier George Miliotes, who is on Twitter @TheWineExpert. Miliotes is only one of 219 master sommeliers around the world. His wine list includes affordable bottles under $30 as well as vintage and limited production wines. The Capital Grille also offers a private wine locker membership, too, where members get an inscribed brushed silver name plate on their locker.

The Capital Grille can also host special events with customized menus by executive chef Matthew Lewis.

So far, BRIO Tuscan Grille, Cheesecake Factory, Seasons 52 and Sophie's inside the Mall at UTC are scheduled to open Oct. 16. Burger and Beer Joint expects to open by Black Friday, leaving Kona Grill the only full-service restaurant not to have an announced opening date. Based on the certificate of occupancy on file, it ought to be open during the grand opening weekend.

Update: Sarasota Chicken Kitchen aiming for November opening

Update: Chicken Kitchen now expecting Nov. 15 soft opening.

Original post:
Miami-based Chicken Kitchen is expected to open in mid-October and start hiring soon.

Rendering of the Sarasota Chicken Kitchen. Rendering Provided

The Herald reported in April how Gris Bettle and his brother-in-law Justin Mattina of West Bradenton are opening the poultry eatery inside The Market at University Town Center (formerly called University Park Center). The restaurant will be at 5215 University Parkway, beside Tijuana Flats.

Now as construction has moved along, Bettle said Friday that the restaurant is on track to start hiring in late September and hope to open mid-October, right when the Mall at University Town Center is expected to open.

Here is what you can expect from Chicken Kitchen from my April report:

"Chicken Kitchen is known for its hour-long grilling process and aims to give a more personable experience than the cafeteria-line fast food joints. The signature items include Chop-Chop, which is diced chicken dishes that customers can hear the distinct chopping sound while in line, and Wrapitos, which are grilled tortilla wraps.
"We only have all-white meat chicken, and we don't own a microwave or a freezer," said Bettle, a St. Stephen's Episcopal School graduate. "Everything's fresh, and the chicken is all natural, so it's raised antibiotic free."
Plus, the chicken shouldn't be warming in a container, waiting to be ordered.
"The food's coming right off the grill, and in 30 seconds it's right on your plate, and you're eating something that's freshly prepared," Mattina said, adding the experience gives a little bit of theater to dining."

The brothers-in-law said they hoped to tweak the operation and menu offerings a little bit to make the restaurant a better franchise model, something that the restaurant had an issue with through its history of promoting franchise opportunities and little to show for it.

Chicken Kitchen also has started a Facebook page, Facebook.com/chickenkitchencktb, which will encompass other potential Chicken Kitchen locations in Tampa Bay. The two have a five-year plan to open six restaurants in Tampa Bay.

Rita's Water Ice planning comeback in Bradenton-Sarasota area

LAS VEGAS -- Rita's Water Ice, known for its flavored ice mixed with fresh fruit and custard, could be making a comeback in the Sarasota-Bradenton area.

The chain once had locations at 8382 Market St., Lakewood Ranch and 4420 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, where the faded sign can still be seen behind a chain link fence in an unfinished strip mall.

A real estate representative for the company told the Herald that Rita's is actively exploring the Sarasota area and is in the midst of a deal there. No location has been selected. The closest Rita's to Bradenton are in Clearwater.

The Trevose, Pa.-based Rita's has 21 locations in Florida with one coming soon in Vero Beach. The chain is open seasonally in most locations from at least the first day of spring and stays open until the third Sunday in September or later. Florida is an exception as most of the locations are open year-round.

Rita's seeks locations that have 35,000 people or more in a trade area with 20,000-plus cars passing by the site each day. Typical Rita's are 1,000 to 1,500 square feet in size.

Custard competition is stronger since Rita's departed. In addition to the local SweetBerries, Freddy's Frozen Custard from Kansas has opened in East Manatee with another coming soon in University Park and Culver's will open this year near Tuttle Avenue on University Parkway plus the owners of Gecko's serve custard at S'macks at Bee Ridge Road and Shade Avenue.

PDQ chicken joint could come to Manatee pretty darn quick.

It’s no secret that PDQ will be coming to Manatee County. Where and when the Tampa-based restaurant will open here is the secret. Kind of.

PDQ, which stands for People Dedicated to Quality, wants to have multiple locations in the Manatee-Sarasota area, said PDQ spokesman Jeff Kamis during a test run of the newly opened PDQ in South Sarasota, 5164 S. Tamiami Trail.

The chicken chain nearly bought the former Checkers building , 505 1^st St., that was put up for sale by Manatee County Schools, but backed out early in the process due to access issues. That parcel has since been sold to Route 32 Investments, a mystery of its own for the time being.

Later during the summer, PDQ picked up 10 acres along LenaRoad near Interstate 75 for $670,000 from Commerce and Storage Holding Co., under the name ChickenDinner LLC.

Ten acres is a lot for a fast-casual chicken joint. The Sarasota site is so small in comparison, the site is measured in square feet (66,989). Maybe they’ll go ahead and put a chicken coop behind it with all that space (kidding!).

For now, PDQ’s parent company MVP Holdings is non-committal about what is going in East Manatee. Kamis previously told me out of the possibilities, which includes PDQ and Lee Roy Selmon’s, could make way for a new retail concept. He didn’t have anything new to offer last week either. I doubt a Lee Roy Selmon's could open there given one is located off of the University Parkway exit.

But with the restaurant sniffing around, it was worth making the drive to see what PDQ is all about. And if you’re one of those foodies who like to be in the know, go ahead and take the drive down to Sarasota if you haven’t been to a PDQ north of the Sunshine Skyway.

During a visit with a colleague, we partook in a friends/family event that helps restaurants give out food to provide a stress test to get ready for a grand opening.

Serving chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders in a fast food setting inevitably brings up Chick-fil-a comparisons. Kamis said that’s not entirely accurate. Chick-fil-a is built on drive-thru service, while PDQ markets itself as fast-casual, similar to Chipotle and Panera Bread.

You will find a drive-thru at PDQ, but no speaker box. Just drive up and talk to someone face-to-face to put in your order and have your food delivered.

Another difference is the food prep. Your basic choices are grilled or fried chicken sandwiches, tenders or salads, in addition to sides and shakes. The chicken is battered as you order it, and the sauces are made from scratch each day.

What I noticed driving to PDQ is how large the place is from the road. This doesn’t look like an everyday fast-food restaurant with the large windows, misters blowing on the patio and comfortable seating.

The amount of windows in the restaurant is more noticeable during sunsets. Once the sun goes down, the dining room gets dark, but more of like for intimate dinner dining—you can still see your food. They won’t flick a switch and make the place bright as can be.

Hand washing is an interesting touch. The sink is located outside of the restrooms for all to use. I kind of like that because it will publicly shame all those who didn’t wash their hands because you can see who walks by the sink coming out of the restroom.

Oh, the food. The chicken is juicy and the sandwiches are built from the top-down. The toppings are on the bottom and the chicken is on top. One employee explained to me that it’s designed that way to hold the chicken in better. He was right, and I immediately thought why nobody else does this. I’ve been a victim of chicken slippage at other restaurants. The lettuce gets soaked by the juices, maybe the mayonnaise aides, but as I squeeze the bun, the chicken slips out. I haven’t had that experience at PDQ yet.

The fries are similar to the Steak ‘n Shake string fries, but were a tad soggy instead of crisp and dry. This might be due to the kitchen having to endlessly churn out food for the masses who showed up for the event. The green and sweet tea were a bit off, too, during that visit. A visit to a St. Pete PDQ recently yielded much better taste on the sweet tea.

During another visit, I decided to opt for the crispy chicken salad. It’s a standard salad with cucumber, but I wish I was asked what kind of sauce I wanted. The default sauce is the honey mustard for the salad. Having seven home-made sauces should be emphasized for each of the menu items, really, and not just the chicken tenders. I wanted to try the Buffalo Bleu, but the honey mustard did a fine job as a substitution by default. The Sweet Heat is a good one to try on sandwiches, too. It’s kind of like a sweet-and-sour sauce without the sour.

Until PDQ comes to Manatee, which is only a matter of time, Sarasota would be the closest option for me. And judging by the crowds at the Sarasota location, I could imagine that a new location would be coming pretty darn quick.

PDQ, 5164 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, is open seven days a week, 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. For more, visit eatpdq.com.