The former Johnny Carino's location and building in the Village Shopping Center.(Ken Caruthers/RN-T.com)
Robinson will take down the old Johnny Carino’s, 838 Turner McCall Blvd., and rebuild his Steak ’n Shake on that site.
Demolition is expected to begin around April 1 with construction starting as soon as the Carino’s site is cleared, he said.
Robinson and Temple hope to have the new Steak ’n Shake open sometime in July.
Rome City Manager John Bennett said he is a huge fan of the restaurant. “I’ve been trying to get one of those here for a long time,” Bennett said.
“We always used to go to Steak ’n Shake in Louisville after the Kentucky Derby. Since we were always hot and tired, it was just the comfort food we needed,” said Jane Slickman, a Rome real estate agent.
For several years the company has been leasing property in the RiverWalk Center at Turner McCall and Riverside Parkway but never committed to construction.
R.H. Ledbetter Properties, which developed the RiverWalk Center, will not be a loser in the change of locations, since the company has a stake in the Village Shopping Center as well.
Robinson confirmed that one of the reasons the Carino’s property was available was that ownership of the Applebee’s franchise in the Village Shopping Center exercised its ability to block another restaurant that would sell alcoholic beverages at the old Carino’s site.
Robinson is no stranger to the restaurant business, as he has been a partner in the Schroeder’s Deli on Martha Berry Highway in Armuchee for several years.
The new restaurant is expected to encompass some 3,200 square feet and will have seating for approximately 80 customers. Robinson estimated that the new eatery would employ between 50 and 60 people.
Heather Seckman, economic development director at the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce, said the new restaurant ought to help the local economy by generating significant sales taxes. She assumes that most of the jobs will be at or near minimum wage. “But in this economy, we’re just happy to see any job creation. We’ll take it,” Seckman said.
Hispanics that open businesses in our area often take a good looking building and make it an eye sore. I suppose they are trying for the back home look. IMO they succeeded. Add a old junk car with the doors open and the seat pulled out is all that is needed.
There are many Guatemalans here as well. It's hard at first to tell who is legal and who isn't until you listen and watch. When you see some standing in their yard urinating, well that's a hint. When you see a bunch in a group with one interpreting, well that's a hint. When you see them in stores ripping open sealed cartons to get a look at the merchandise and throwing the carton in the floor, well that's a hint. When you see them picking up food items from a buffet with their hands, well that's a hint. I don't intend to sound like Jeff Foxworthy here but this is stuff I see.
Recently I was in a place where children are not allowed. This Hispanic person brings in his daughter of about 4 years old, maybe 5. She starts getting into stuff and making a lot of noise. Several people told him that she should be at home, his answer was always the same, "No one at home to watch her". The owner asked him to leave, same thing. He was threatened with the police and DFACS, he smiled and same answer. Finally he grabbed the girl, pushed her against the wall, busted her in the mouth and told her to sit down and shut up. Up until then I was quite but couldn't stand to see this so told him to leave, same answer. That's when I approached him and told him it wasn't a request that he was going to leave. He left.
The thought here is that our authorities are too nice. If they take them across the border the Hispanics will often beat them back across. I read a book back in the late 1960s that warned of this. Our country did nothing. I know for a fact that in some countries soldiers are placed along borders and shoot invaders wanting in. I'm just saying.
I actually realize that the favored nation trade status with China, NAFTA, CAFTA, and "ILLEGAL" immigration are all equal causes for the economic and budget crisis. Al Gore even admitted that NAFTA was intended to curb the illegal influx, but failed when Mexico would not play fair and increase their wages. Now CAFTA is doing the same.
I think most people with half a brain realize that Hitler was a psychopathic idiot. I don't think anyone seriously sane thinks that concentration camps is the way to go. But neither is amnesty, or just turning a blind eye for the sake of sympathy.
If deportation seems too harsh, then see how locking them up in jail seems. Because if you or I tried to do half of what illegal aliens are doing, we would all be in jail for tax evasion, identity theft, and welfare fraud, all of which are very serious crimes.
If they want to come here the same way my grandparents did, legally, and actually stay and contribute to generating revenue and paying taxes, then I'm all for it. Unfortunately, most don't.
I more resent our government more for letting this all happen. They too prosper from it all. It is the same unlevel playing field they complain about with other nations. Yet, as individuals and agencies, they probably benefit more than anyone. Need to start by locking some of them up first.
You call the cops, but they either won't or can't do anything about it. But you still have to keep the place up and pay the property tax, fix or replace anything that goes wrong, cut the grass, while also helping make sure we had free food and supplies, free healthcare and free education, by paying up extra in taxes.
Next thing you know, one of us is stealing your job because we'll work cheaper, tax free, with no insurance or benefits. Now your out of a job, and can't find another one because they have all been taken by cheaper help. You can't draw unemployment benefits, but the IRS still wants your money to help pay for the extra cost of your new tenants. Your neighbors don't care because they do lots of buisness with them, and make a lot of money off of them, and really like them.
You have no choice but to lower your pride, and go to the welfare office, and there sits the wives of your new tenants. You don't understand how they are getting any kind of benefits. You know for a fact that they, and their husbands, are both working making fairly good tax free money w/o benefits. They don't even pay taxes.
Now there are more of them everywhere, in the whole neighborhood, doing the exact same thing to others that happened to you. You hang on as long as you can, but finally lose your savings, your house, your dignity, your hope, everything.
Now you don't know if you are having a heart attack or a stroke. You go to the emergency room, only to have to have an extra long wait behind some of your new tenants new neighbors. It is taking longer than usual because they do not speak english, and no one working at the hospital speaks spanish.
Too bad you lost your medical insurance when you lost your job, not that it really covered what it used to. Now your stuck with an outrageous hospital bill that would have been a lot lower if they weren't giving away all that free healthcare for your new tenants new neighbors. You and your family would probably be better off
if you went ahead and died, if you only had not lost your life insurance and pension when you lost your job and everything else.
This scenario is probably not anything like your reality on whatever planet your actually on, but it is for millions of other American CITIZENS
Where do you come by this information? And if it is the case, why hasn't the Rome News written anything about it? 98 percent is a huge number. It would mean that 9.5 out of ten of Rome's Latinos are illegal. ICE would be all over us in minutes.
I just finished a big state funded construction project where the drywall contractor had 60 employees, and had no problem admitting that 58 of them were illegal. To corroborate that, go and read about another recent state funded Marietta courthouse project, with the exact same general contractor (Turner). The whole masonry crew was discovered to be illegal, and were only rounded up after their work was turned down by building inspectors and had to be redone(AJC). Only then did they decide to do E-Verify.
I know exactly what's going on these days, unlike yourself. I've had several Latino compadres actually tell me all about how they do it, and then get away with it. They don't mind telling about it, because they know that nobody is going to do anything about it. The ones that could do something usually either can't, or just won't. And the illegals realize that.
So get your head out of the sand! At least 98% of the Latino's you see around here are 100%ILLEGAL! If you sympathize with criminals and lawbreakers, that's fine. But if you aid and abet them, profit or prosper from them, then you should go to jail too!
I guess Applebee's just couldn't stand any competition. That just shows the power of corporate America when it comes to squelching capitalism.
I'd much rather find trouble to make.
But someone should point out here,
that illegals don't work at the Shake.
This big corporate burger company,
has recently become tough and stout,
because thanks to the feds' E-Verify
those illegals are being weeded out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Verify
You see, what did I tell you? You didn't say anything about these "mexicans'" legal status; you simply resent their national origin, legal or not. Who cares if Mexicans are working somewhere? Thank you, braizz, for showing all of us what you and JPT really mean when you complain about Latinos in America, namely, that you are simply, contemptibly prejudiced. I happen to think Spanish is a beautiful language, and I don't see what is wrong with hearing it -- or any -- foreign language, here, there, or anywhere. Listen closely some time and you might just pick up a little. This world is chock full of thousands of languages, and I only wish life were long enough to pick up more than a few of them.
Actually, it is what most Romans need. A job that requires little education and short enough hours to allow them to still get on their 'puters and complain.