Famed Orlando steakhouse chain expanding to Lakewood Ranch

Charley’s Steak House, a popular Florida eatery with four locations, is planning a new restaurant in Lakewood Ranch on a site it purchased about four years ago.

The chain’s parent company, Talk of the Town, formerly submitted a site plan application to Manatee County Friday.

According to a project narrative included in records from a pre-application meeting in late September, plans call for the construction of a 14,000-square-foot restaurant along with ancillary parking, utility and drainage infrastructure. The project also includes a possible 4,000-square-foot bank with associated parking to be built on the site.

(Copies of the site plan were not immediately available on the county’s planning website Monday.)

A conceptual plan drawn up by Kimley-Horn, the engineering and design firm working on the project for Talk of the Town, shows the eatery will be built just southwest of Exchange Place Way and back up to an existing pond.

The 5.2-acre property is at 6120 Exchange Way just off of the on-ramp to Interstate 75 at University Parkway east of The Mall at University Town Center. Talk of the Town bought the property in 2022 for $1.75 million, records show. 

Charley’s, which has been a popular local destination for diners in Tampa for decades, will join an already crowded upscale steakhouse scene in and around Lakewood Ranch. Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Ruth Chris Steak House and The Capital Grille all have restaurants within a mile of the proposed restaurant.

But that is unlikely to worry Charley’s. All of those chains have restaurants within a couple of miles of the Tampa location as well. And the internationally known — and recognized — Bern’s Steak House is about five miles away.

Charley’s has been around since 1984 when Red Lobster co-founder and the owner of the Talk of the Town restaurants Charley Woodsby and his son Ron opened the first of its locations in Orlando.

Today, it operates restaurants on International Drive in Orlando and at Celebration in Kissimmee.  

The Tampa restaurant opened on Cypress Street in 1998 and has become a local staple, drawing diners with its old world-atmosphere, wine list and, of course, steaks.

Charley’s well-known Cypress location is being replaced, though. The chain is currently building a new home for the restaurant on the corner of North Westshore Boulevard and Spruce Street across from International Plaza and Bay Street.

That move is being driven by a Florida Department of Transportation project that will widen Interstate 275 to include express lanes. That widening also led to the closing and eventual demolition of the DoubleTree by Hilton Tampa Airport-Westshore.

Charley’s current restaurant is next to the hotel property.

Talk of the Town did not respond to a request for comment about the Lakewood Ranch Charley’s or the construction scheduled for the new Tampa location, which was originally slated to open last year.