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Florida Restaurants
Feeding Frenzy
A crop of fast-casual restaurants is finding fertile ground in Florida.
Po' Boys Creole Café
 HIS DREAM MEAL: Charlie Youngs plans to add as many as 20 more restaurants by 2011 to the seven he and his two partners already have. |
Started: 1992
Annual Revenue: $6.5 million
For years, Charlie Youngs dreamed about starting a New Orleans-style cafe. A Navy brat who grew up in Florida, Youngs attended the University of Florida and in 1980 settled into a career as a project engineer in the construction business.
In 1990, in the midst of a recession, Youngs lost his job, grew frustrated in his search for another and decided to go into the restaurant business. He took a job as a dishwasher, working at several restaurants in the Sarasota area. There he met Jon Sweede, a marketing grad from Ohio, who worked at the Chart House and shared Youngs' vision.
The duo spent the next year putting together their business proposal. In 1992, with $17,000 they borrowed from family, Youngs, Sweede and a third partner, restaurant veteran Carmen Calabrese, launched Po' Boys Creole Café in Tallahassee.
The restaurant gained a loyal following, and by the end of the first year, Youngs, Sweede and Calabrese had earned enough money to open another location in downtown Tallahassee. Today, the restaurant has seven locations -- in Tallahassee, Tampa, Brandon, Gainesville, Jacksonville and Orlando. The company aims to open another 10 to 20 locations over the next five years.
