Tavistock Acquires E-Brands Restaurants

The Tavistock Group acquired E Brands Restaurants, the parent company of Timpano Chophouse and Martini Bar, in a deal valued at $11.3 million.

Orlando-based E-Brands filed for bankruptcy in August. The deal includes E-Brands' three brands - Timpano Chophouse, AquaKnox and Taqueria Canonita — as well as seven restaurant locations.

Timpano, an Italian chophouse concept, has four locations in Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Rockville, Md. AquaKnox and Taqueria are located in the Venetian Casino, Hotel & Resort in Las Vegas.

The E-brands concepts will be managed by Tavistock Restaurants, the restaurant division of Tavistock Group, which is based in Orlando. The international private investment company is comprised of 175 companies. The company's portfolio includes the up-scale golf course communities of Isleworth and Lake Nona, which are home to numerous PGA golfers like Tiger Woods, Lee Janzen and Stuart Appleby. Each spring the company hosts the Tavistock Cup, a competition between the two Central Florida golf clubs.

The Tavistock Group also controls 7,000 acres in Southeast Orlando that is being developed as a “medical city,” with an emphasis on attracting biomedical companies to Central Florida. The area is currently home to Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, the Orlando VA Medical Center, Nemours Children's Hospital, M.D. Anderson Orlando's Cancer Research Institute and a University of Florida research facility.