While driving to visit friends last night, I noticed a new restaurant had opened at the recently shuddered Nino’s. Carl’s On The Parkway at 6497 Apalachee Parkway opened two weeks ago and offers a moderately priced menu of steaks, prime rib, seafood and house specialties. It is no coincidence this eatery started-up at a time when many are closing for financial reasons. Owner Carl Bengston says this is probably the best time to open a restaurant, hoping to build a clientele and later thrive when conditions improve.

Besides Nino’s, another recent closure was the Silver Slipper, 531 Silver Slipper Lane, a Tallahassee institution since 1938. Well known as the place where government officials and lobbyists brushed elbows to meet and dine in secluded booths, Silver Slipper owners cite the 2005 gift ban legislation prohibiting public officials from accepting gifts as a reason for closing in April 2009. It will be interesting to see what the Kalfas‘ bring to the next iteration of their family tradition, a restaurant slated to open in 2010.

Returning to their roots on Apalachee Parkway (see old advertisement, right), Marie Livingston’s Steakhouse is currently remodeling the former location of Durango Steakhouse, 2705 Apalachee Parkway, for a planned autumn opening. I have been a fan of the 2714 Graves Road Days Inn location since before I moved here in 2005, but Marie’s opening on the Parkway will herald the return of the steak lunch option to those of us working on the east side. The folks at UrbanTallahassee are posting the latest news and information, plus excellent photographs of the site spanning the past year.

The last time I headed to ItZa Pizza, 3551 Blairstone Road Suite 124, for lunch I found it closed. Having dined at the Italian eatery for over three years, I was disappointed to lose yet another lunch staple. Fortunately, their website says they moved to 2714 Apalachee Parkway in the Corners at Cross Creek strip plaza across the street from the brand new Super Suds Express carwash. The Steak Bomb, Chicken Bomb and Grilled Chicken sandwich are all absent from the temporary menu posted online, so I hope to find them available when I stop by soon. I also wonder if they replaced the decent Peruvian/Cuban Las Brasas Restaurant or moved in next door.

All this talk of restaurants opening and closing has me thinking about The Tales of Stories Past III, my January 2008 article on the same topic. Just under a year and a half have passed, what a perfect opportunity to post updates on the locations discussed then. So here they are, ordered by their appearance in the original article.

There is an interesting butterfly or moth (I think) on the wall of the stairway to my apartment. I attempted to identify it comparing my pictures to resources online but have not yet found a match.

UPDATE: It is a luna moth, Actias luna (Linnaeus, 1758).