Founders son and an uncle trying to bring back Shells seafood restaurants in Florida
September 18, 2014 -
Tampa Bay mainstay Shells Seafood Restaurants were thriving for awhile in the late 1980s, at one point numbering 45 restaurants and employing 1,200 people in the U.S. The concept was taken public in 1993, and that's when the trouble started.
"None of them seemed to work except the ones in Florida," remembers John Christen Jr., son of founder John Christen Sr.
The younger Christen, a fresh University of Florida grad, and his uncle David Canady have decided to resurrect the concept. In 2012 Canady opened a location on Fowler in Tampa; this August Christen opened a St. Pete Beach location in what was most recently Jaxson's. The menu is nearly identical to the Shells of yore, the recipes mostly dating back to before the company was taken public.
John Christen Jr. isn't aiming for an empire this time, but he is hoping to recapture the Tampa Bay area, with maybe locations in Brandon and Clearwater...
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