What's Clearwater Saying?

Restaurant Inspectors: Roach Infestation at Panda Lover

The Clearwater restaurant has re-opened after being shut down by state code enforcers for three days in April. Here are details of the violations.

East Bay Drive Pizza Hut Robber Still Wanted

The suspect is wanted in connection with a spree that began in September and includes break-ins in three counties. The most recent robbery took place Nov. 1.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies are looking for some help to identify a suspect wanted in connection with seven armed restaurant robberies in three different counties, including a Pizza Hut in the Clearwater/Largo area nearly two months ago. The spree began in September as a single armed robbery at a Gunn Highway Papa John’s. It has since grown to include a number of robberies in Hillsborough County, the Pizza Hut in Pinellas and one in Hernando. The suspect has only targeted pizza and fast-food restaurants to date. The man wanted in connection with the crimes is described as a black male between the age of 22 and 35. He is about 150 to 180 pounds and stands between 5-foot-5 and 5-foot-11. He wears a black ski mask during the …

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Village Inn Finds New Home on Gulf to Bay

The longtime Clearwater restaurant opened last week a mile down the street from its old location with a new look but the same menu.

Although the Village Inn restaurant had been in the same location on Gulf to Bay Boulevard for 31 years, people always seemed to miss it, according to owner Jim Walker.  Despite being located on the major thoroughfare that connects Clearwater with Tampa, motorists would pass by hundreds of times without really noticing the place, he said.  That lack of recognition caused Walker and his brother, Paul, to move their eatery one mile down the road, to the opposite side U.S. 19, where new developments and businesses are springing up and patrons are flowing in.  “We had been down the street for 31 years, but when the lease was up, we started looking for a bigger space closer to where all the action is,” Jim Walker explained. “We hope to keep our…

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Banana Boat Boss Guiding Club Back to the Future

With an industry expert at the helm, the Roosevelt Boulevard bar is aiming to recapture the popularity of its heyday.

Club consultant Angelo Proestopoulos has done it all when it comes to the bar and restaurant business.  In addition to being associated with Bay area establishments such as Tail Gators, Café 13 and gentleman’s club 24K, he also played important roles in the Chuck E. Cheese's and Ruby Tuesday franchises and managed a number of hotspots in the bustling Miami club scene.  In fact, Proestopoulos is so well known in the industry, the back of his business card simply states "Everybody Knows Angelo."  So when he says he is going to bring the Banana Boat back to prominence, you pretty much have to take him at his word.  “This place has been a staple in the area for over 30 years,” the 39-year-old explains. “Grandparents, parents and their kids …

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Beach Restaurant Brings Hooters 'Full Circle'

The company is going back to its roots with its new restaurant on Clearwater Beach.

It may be common knowledge that Hooters, the iconic wing restaurant with waitresses garbed in eye-catching attire, was founded on Gulf to Bay Boulevard in Clearwater nearly 30 years ago.  What might not be known is the idea for the imagery behind Hooters began a few miles west, on the sun-soaked sand of Clearwater Beach.  That’s where company co-founder Ed Droste and current CEO Neil Kiefer first saw Lynne Austin in a bikini contest in 1982; the pair approached the stunning young blonde and asked if she would like to be the centerpiece for their new wing joint.  “We were out boating … and we were enthralled by (Lynne’s) beauty and her charisma,” Kiefer recalled. “We asked her if she wanted to be the first employee of a restaurant that hadn…

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Best Beer Selection: Vote For Your Favorite!

Who do you think has the best beer selection in town?

Summer is here, and everybody's looking for something new to do. What better time to revisit the best local hot spots in Largo? Until July 8, we collected nominations for Readers' Choice 2012 in 25 categories, from the best gym in town to the best zoo in the Tampa Bay area. Voting runs through Aug. 17.  Whose beer selection would you recommend? Nominate your favorite in the comments below. And don't forget to nominate your favorite local places in the other 24 categories, too!

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