June 23, 2006

The Restaurant People Stay Hot in Fla. with Blue Fire

Delray Beach, Fla. - The Restaurant People, a South Florida group that owns three Tarpon Bend restaurants, in Broward and Dade counties, and the River House in Fort Lauderdale, is spending $2.4 million to launch a new midscale brand called Blue Fire in this Palm Beach County dining mecca.

With four restaurants now grossing $16 million annually, the group, headed by Houston's Restaurants veteran Tim Petrillo and his chef-partner, Peter Boulukos, envisions a second Blue Fire in Fort Lauderdale by early 2007 and continued expansion of the Tarpon Bend brand at a minimum pace of one unit per year. But South Florida's exploding rate of development, spurred by population growth and renovation from ...