Restaurant chain hires in bunches

If Florida Gov. Rick Scott comes through on the 700,000 jobs in seven years pledge he made in 2010, he might want to eat a celebratory burrito.

That's because Maitland-based Tijuana Flats, a quick-casual Tex-Mex chain, is on a massive jobs growth spurt. The company opened 12 stores in 2012, it says in a release, which led to 530 new jobs spread from Jacksonville to Sarasota and Orlando to Miami. More than 140 of those jobs are management positions, the company says.

Tijuana Flats has plans for nine new stores in the Sunshine State in 2013, which could mean another few hundred jobs. One, possibly two, of those locations might be on the Gulf Coast. Steve Martin, who already operates 10 Tijuana Flats in the region, previously told the Business Review he recently signed a letter of intent for a location in Palm Harbor. He's also spoken with Tijuana Flats executives about expansion in the Fort Myers area.