Island Shrimp Co. and Casa Del Barco are planning to close at Chesterfield Towne Center at the end of December. (BizSense file)
A fast-growing local restaurant operator is picking up where another restaurant group is leaving off in Chesterfield Towne Center.
Casa Del Barco and Island Shrimp Co. are planning to shutter their locations at the shopping mall in late December.
A deal is in the works between Housepitality Family, which operates those eateries, and Lindsey Food Group to transfer the leases on the spaces at the mall. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
In their places, Lindsey Food Group expects to open a second location of its ML Steak Modern Chophouse and a new concept called Kali Love early next year.
But that isn’t all Lindsey Food Group has in store for the Chesterfield mall in 2024. Mike Lindsey, who co-owns the company with wife Kimberly Love-Lindsey, said they plan to also open another location of their Farm + Oak concept at the mall.
Lindsey said he expects to take over the Housepitality spaces Jan. 1.
Kimberly Love-Lindsey and Mike Lindsey.
Lindsey said he had been eyeing an expansion into Chesterfield when he got connected with Housepitality owner Kevin Healy a few months ago.
“We had a conversation about where he was and what he wanted,” Lindsey said. “Him operating great restaurants, he knows when it’s time. I was excited because we were looking to get into Chesterfield.”
The plan is to first open ML Steak in the Casa Del Barco space. After that Kali Love, a seafood-heavy concept with a California theme, would open in the Island Shrimp Co. space.
Lindsey said Kali Love is an homage to his wife, who is from California. The restaurant is planned to have a seafood emphasis but draw on other culinary traditions, such as Italian food.
“It’ll be a nice, broad menu similar to being able to go to California and have that experience. What I love about California cuisine is it touches everything,” Lindsey said.
The Farm + Oak would open in the space formerly occupied by pizzeria Grimaldi’s, giving Lindsey Food Group a block of eateries at the Chesterfield Town Center entrance near the H&M store. Lindsey said he signed a lease on the space earlier this year and intends to open that restaurant in September 2024.
“We ‘re going to turn that corner into a super party,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey Food Group currently operates 10 restaurants, its latest being Frostings Bake Shop in Short Pump, which it recently acquired and reopened Monday at a new location, 4336 Pouncy Tract Road. Its other restaurants include Rams House Bar + Kitchen, Buttermilk and Honey and Lillie Pearl.
Kevin Healy
Healy said several factors contributed to the decision to close Casa Del Barco and Island Shrimp Co. in Chesterfield next month, but ultimately the company wasn’t happy with the customer volume at the mall-based outposts.
“The volume we were doing at Chesterfield Towne Center was a struggle to maintain. We had a strategy meeting about the future, and keeping restaurants that didn’t really fit our portfolio didn’t make sense,” Healy said. “Being in Chesterfield Towne Center was the problem. The other restaurants were doing fine.”
Once Healy’s group exits the Chesterfield mall, it’ll have seven restaurants, including the Island Shrimp Co. that opened last year in Rocketts Landing and the Casa Del Barco locations in Short Pump Town Center and Shockoe Slip. The group’s Boathouse concept has four locations in the region.
The mall outposts of Island Shrimp Co. and Casa Del Barco opened in the fall of 2019.
“I’m very proud of what we did,” Healy said. “People liked what we did. We just didn’t have enough people to make it the type of restaurant we’re good at running.”
Island Shrimp Co. and Casa Del Barco are planning to close at Chesterfield Towne Center at the end of December. (BizSense file)
A fast-growing local restaurant operator is picking up where another restaurant group is leaving off in Chesterfield Towne Center.
Casa Del Barco and Island Shrimp Co. are planning to shutter their locations at the shopping mall in late December.
A deal is in the works between Housepitality Family, which operates those eateries, and Lindsey Food Group to transfer the leases on the spaces at the mall. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
In their places, Lindsey Food Group expects to open a second location of its ML Steak Modern Chophouse and a new concept called Kali Love early next year.
But that isn’t all Lindsey Food Group has in store for the Chesterfield mall in 2024. Mike Lindsey, who co-owns the company with wife Kimberly Love-Lindsey, said they plan to also open another location of their Farm + Oak concept at the mall.
Lindsey said he expects to take over the Housepitality spaces Jan. 1.
Kimberly Love-Lindsey and Mike Lindsey.
Lindsey said he had been eyeing an expansion into Chesterfield when he got connected with Housepitality owner Kevin Healy a few months ago.
“We had a conversation about where he was and what he wanted,” Lindsey said. “Him operating great restaurants, he knows when it’s time. I was excited because we were looking to get into Chesterfield.”
The plan is to first open ML Steak in the Casa Del Barco space. After that Kali Love, a seafood-heavy concept with a California theme, would open in the Island Shrimp Co. space.
Lindsey said Kali Love is an homage to his wife, who is from California. The restaurant is planned to have a seafood emphasis but draw on other culinary traditions, such as Italian food.
“It’ll be a nice, broad menu similar to being able to go to California and have that experience. What I love about California cuisine is it touches everything,” Lindsey said.
The Farm + Oak would open in the space formerly occupied by pizzeria Grimaldi’s, giving Lindsey Food Group a block of eateries at the Chesterfield Town Center entrance near the H&M store. Lindsey said he signed a lease on the space earlier this year and intends to open that restaurant in September 2024.
“We ‘re going to turn that corner into a super party,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey Food Group currently operates 10 restaurants, its latest being Frostings Bake Shop in Short Pump, which it recently acquired and reopened Monday at a new location, 4336 Pouncy Tract Road. Its other restaurants include Rams House Bar + Kitchen, Buttermilk and Honey and Lillie Pearl.
Kevin Healy
Healy said several factors contributed to the decision to close Casa Del Barco and Island Shrimp Co. in Chesterfield next month, but ultimately the company wasn’t happy with the customer volume at the mall-based outposts.
“The volume we were doing at Chesterfield Towne Center was a struggle to maintain. We had a strategy meeting about the future, and keeping restaurants that didn’t really fit our portfolio didn’t make sense,” Healy said. “Being in Chesterfield Towne Center was the problem. The other restaurants were doing fine.”
Once Healy’s group exits the Chesterfield mall, it’ll have seven restaurants, including the Island Shrimp Co. that opened last year in Rocketts Landing and the Casa Del Barco locations in Short Pump Town Center and Shockoe Slip. The group’s Boathouse concept has four locations in the region.
The mall outposts of Island Shrimp Co. and Casa Del Barco opened in the fall of 2019.
“I’m very proud of what we did,” Healy said. “People liked what we did. We just didn’t have enough people to make it the type of restaurant we’re good at running.”
We went to ISC a few weeks ago on a weekday evening and our party of 8 were the only people in the entire restaurant. I mentioned to my wife that they won’t last long. It’s a bummer because the concept and space is great, and the food and drinks are good. I worry about the Lindsey Food Group going ALL IN (!!) there but really hope it works out for them and I know we will give it a try!
This is a real shame. I enjoy going to Island Shrimp Company with my mother on Black Friday while at Chesterfield Towne Center. It’s a unique concept for the area and I loved the shipping container architecture. It will be missed.
Wow! A full-throated endorsement for Chesterfield Towne Center…
Fortunately, I have only endured dining at ISC once and the service experience was pure tragedy. No dedicated wait staff/server, had to use an app for everything, and mandatory 20% gratuity! Never went back again, and as far as I know the business stuck to this off-putting recipe for far too long. I spoke with quite a few people who are also one-and-done after 1 bad visit. I tend to agree with the owner, there is only so much island escapism magic that can be conjured in a parking lot of a dead mall better known as the Ghost Towne… Read more »
Went once, and the 20% “fee” for eating there was it. No more. Can’t even be bothered to take our order???
Ditto what others have said about being forced to use the app for everything and the lack of dedicated waitstaff. I won’t visit a Casa/Boathouse location for those very reasons.
Sadly, I’m not surprised. We quit going to this group of restaurants several years ago. The “order from an app” idea might have been good during the pandemic, but how do you expect people to pay “sit down” restaurant prices, be charged a 20 percent service charge and have no dedicated server. If I want to order from an app and have no dedicated server, I’ll go to Chipotle or Panera.
This is what happens when you make a restaurant designed to appeal for instagram and not food. Pathetic menu, bad food, marginal service and over priced. I said a long time ago that ISC wouldn’t make it. Surprised it lasted this long.
There is plenty of traffic in this area for a good restaurant. Focus on the basics and you’ll do very well. Look at Texas Roadhouse right down the street. It has a wait every night. Excited for the new spots to move in.
I loved ISC when it opened and even Casa Del Barco. The food WAS excellent and the concept was so neat. Loved the rooftop dining that escaped the mall setting. HOWEVER post pandemic it was awful. The app for ordering/paying and the 20% imposed gratuity meant no waitstaff to care about customers. We often sat for long times waiting for drink orders and to ask questions that an app cannot answer. They stopped seating in the cool areas and food quality waned. You cannot blame the mall. Red Robin stays busy. Auntie Ann’s been booming for decades. The restaurant is… Read more »
At first the food was good, but their service model after COVID sunk these restaurants. Providing a living wage should be the norm, but so should providing acceptable service levels. When we visited each time we had trouble getting the attention of servers and staff who seemed less-than-interested in working in the dining room or providing service to customers. I have much higher confidence in the Lindseys to provide an excellent dining experience.
Mr. Healy we went to Casa and Island Shrimp and it was a 20% surcharge for gratuity that really screwed up the fan base so don’t say it was the mall. I liked the nightlife at Island Shrimp but nobody wants to pay an extra charge on top of the bill.