Hotdogs at Carmines Palm Beach Gardens

Carmine Giardini is nearing retirement age, but the 62-year-old restaurateur has no plans to retire.

He tried it once, unsuccessfully. "I have a home on Nantucket. I did that for a couple of summers. It gets boring," Giardini said.

So now Giardini has another idea: Create a new restaurant empire.

Giardini said he plans to take his CG Burgers concept nationwide by opening up between 400 and 500 stores during the next several years. Look for CG Burgers to start popping up in South Florida, including in Boca Raton. He expects to open about six or seven eateries a year at first, and then more as time goes on.

Ambitious, yes, but Giardini feels upbeat about the move. With the economy still recovering from the recession, Giardini says people are looking for good value when they dine. Even when the economy improves, Giardini thinks dining habits have changed permanently. That's because many busy families no longer have time to cook a meal in the evening. "Therefore it's easier to go out to get a bite to eat," he said.

Giardini is a longtime fixture in the northern Palm Beach County dining scene. He owns Carmine's Gourmet Market, Carmine's La Trattoria and Noche Nightclub in Palm Beach Gardens.

More recently, he launched several new restaurants. They include Palm Beach Gardens-based Cabo Flats, of which he is a 50 percent owner; and CG Burgers and Carmine's Coal Fired Pizza Ristorante, both in Jupiter, in the Bermudiana Plaza.

Giardini's restaurants have a reputation for quality, and CG Burgers is no different. For instance, the butcher in Giardini remains picky about his beef. Therefore, Giardini says the restaurant grinds its own prime meat. CG Burgers has plenty to offer the non-beef eater, too, including lamb, chicken, turkey, sausage and vegetarian burgers. CG Burgers also offers hot dogs, grilled chicken breast, grilled cheese and several sandwiches. There are wings, french fries and sweet potato fries, too, plus an organic salad bar.

His new ventures are doing extremely well, and all are slated for expansion. Cabo Flats, in the Downtown at the Gardens shopping center, could be brought to Coral Gables or Fort Lauderdale, Giardini said. A new location of Carmine's Coal Fired Pizza also is set to open in west Kendall, in Miami-Dade County.

But the biggest expansion of all will be CG Burgers. Giardini has hired Palm Beach Gardens-based restaurant broker Richard Lackey of the Lackey Cos. to scout locations. With many eateries falling out because of the recession, Lackey said savvy operators can pick up good deals. "Now is the time to buy or lease a location," said Lackey, who said the pace of deals has dramatically picked up.

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In other restaurant news, a prime but vacant space in Jupiter soon will see some life. We're talking about the old Marc's Chop House locale in the Fisherman's Wharf Plaza on Indiantown Road at the Intracoastal Waterway. Lackey, the restaurant broker, recently completed a deal to turn the space into a Tuscan restaurant called Casa Mia Jupiter.

Stefano Paggetti, with partner Roberto Cavalieri, promises a restaurant committed to high-quality service. "We're going to bring the service and good food back to the customer. So many restaurants are so lacking in service right now," Paggetti said. "I miss the feeling of going into a restaurant and being welcomed."

Authentic Italian cuisine also will be a draw. "My family is from Tuscany and my partner is from Milan. We're importing a pizza oven from Italy," Paggetti said. Prices for entrees will be reasonable, under $20, Paggetti said. He's mindful of the recession, so he's keeping the prices down, but he also believes that "a lot of people still like to go out." Casa Mia Jupiter is expected to open in August.

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Progress at last?

The Promenade condominium in Boynton Beach recently began closing its first sales. Now it is ready to start building out space for its first two retail tenants.

Margy's and Happy Garden will occupy a total of 3,500 square feet in downstairs retail space. Happy Garden, a Chinese food take-out restaurant, will fill 1,000 square feet of space and Margy's, a longtime fixture in Boynton Beach, will take 2,500 square feet. Margy's is a sit-down diner-style restaurant that used to be at a shopping center site that was torn down to make way for the Promenade.

Construction will start this month on the restaurants, with completion expected in the fourth quarter.

The presence of the two restaurants at the condo has been planned for a long time. But it's taken until now to be able to finally start work. Pryse Elam of Boynton Waterway Investment Associates LLC, the condo's developer, said he was happy to be able to bring dining options to the condo's residents.

More retailers could be on the way: Lancore Realty of Boca Raton has been hired to lease the additional 16,000 square feet of retail space. The Promenade, at the northeast corner of Federal Highway and Boynton Beach Boulevard, has 318 condo units in two 14-story towers. Prices start from $150,000 and go up to the $400,000 for townhouse units. The condo closed its first deals last month, which was nine months after the project was completed.

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The Downtown at the Gardens shopping center in Palm Beach Gardens, which has been trying to undergo a retail rebirth, soon will be home to the rebirth of a retail chain.

Swoozies, a gift and greeting card retailer, went out of business nationally in April. A national liquidator bought its inventory. But the name lives on and recently was purchased by a private equity company in Denver. It expects to reopen by mid-July or August.

Gart Capital Partners plans to relaunch the store - and the Downtown location is one of only seven locations nationwide that is being reopened to restart the chain.

Brian Berman of Berman Enterprises, which owns Downtown, said Swoozies had done well at the shopping center and is pleased to see it come back. Using Downtown as a venue to relaunch Swoozies is a good sign for Downtown, too. The 350,000-square-foot center now is 77 percent leased, up about 10 percent from when the Berman first took over the property in June 2009. Berman has worked hard to bring in new tenants and arrange entertainment that will draw patrons back to the center.

Alexandra Clough writes about the economy, real estate and the law. Contact her at alexandra_clough@pbpost.com.

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Source: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/business/2010/06/19/alexandra-clough-restauranteur-carmine-giardini/7434298007/

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