Riding the restaurant wave

The state's well-regarded reputation as a good place to open a business -- and lately, as a good place to start a restaurant and grow it nationally -- is providing some positive news in an economy that's still sputtering.

At least two national chains have increased their focus on Delaware in recent months, and two well-known Delaware-bred businesses are marching ahead with ambitious national expansion plans, capping a year that saw several chains arrive in Delaware for the first time.

Looking ahead, new places for some recently arrived faces are coming:

?Sometime around Valentine's Day, the state's second Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza will open on Limestone Road in the Pike Creek area, a spinoff of the original Delaware location on Concord Pike.

?Cheeburger Cheeburger, a chain that had a location open relatively briefly just over the line on U.S. 202 in Pennsylvania, is close to opening a new-to-Delaware location on Newark's Main Street, at the site of the former Jimmy's Diner.

In the past few months, other restaurants came to Delaware for the first time, four at Christiana Mall alone:

?Brio Tuscan Grille

?Cheesecake Factory

?California Pizza Kitchen

?J.B. Dawson's Restaurant & Bar

Dover also has seen the arrival of a another new-to-market name, Chipotle Mexican Grill, near the Dover Downs entrance.

The Brandywine Hundred location of Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza already has become one of the top company-owned locations, said Chris Blythe, development partner for the chain in the Delaware-Pennsylvania-New Jersey area.

The new Pike Creek location -- at 4308 Limestone Road, just north of Goldey-Beacom College -- will feature a patio and outdoor fireplace, he said.

More could soon be on the way.

"I am looking in and around the Christiana area, and then down in the Middletown area," he said.

Meanwhile, other franchises have been pushing ahead with some new locations for existing brands -- an IHOP is now open at Fairfax Shopping Center. But most prominently, the nation has been witnessing -- through 2010 and into 2011 -- the spread of two well-known, Delaware-born brands: Jake's hamburgers and Capriotti's subs.