Costa Mesa-based Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar plans to open a location next year in Florida, a new market.
The Westfield Broward Mall site is in the Miami metro area, a dozen miles from Ft. Lauderdale and across the street from Plantation Walk, a $350 million mixed-use development that broke ground in January and is planned for Class A office space, high-end rental homes and 200,000 square feet of retail, on 27 acres.
Lazy Dog is in the midst of national expansion to 50 locations in the next two to three years backed by Los Angeles-based private equity owner Brentwood Associates. It has 30 restaurants now, in five states.
It’s the 15th-largest OC-based restaurant chain with about $150 million in annual revenue and is pushing to double that take with the expansion.
The chain was co-founded in Huntington Beach in 2003 by Chief Executive Chris Simms and Executive Chef Gabe Caliendo. Simms is the son of Tom Simms, co-founder of Mimi’s Café, formerly based in OC.
