Evergreen Restaurant Group LLC, the Pacific Northwest franchisee for both the Outback Steakhouse and Bonefish Grill full-service restaurant chains, plans to open outlets in the renovated NorthTown Mall, and the two restaurants possibly would have a shared kitchen, says Brad Barker, the franchisee’s operational director.

The site near the north end of the NorthTown Mall, at 4750 N. Division, is less than a half-mile south of an Outback Steakhouse restaurant currently located at 6628 N. Division, in the Franklin Park Commons shopping center.

“The Outback would be considered a relocation,” Barker says. “It’s 20 years old, so we would remodel or relocate it anyway,” Barker says.

Outback Steakhouse, an Australian-themed steak restaurant, and Bonefish Grill, a casual-dining seafood restaurant, are both franchise companies of Tampa, Fla.-based Bloomin’ Brands Inc.

The building permit application currently is under plan review.

Barker says Evergreen Restaurant Group hopes to begin tenant improvements in time to open the restaurants this fall.

“If we can’t get it done before the Christmas holidays, we’ll put if off until the New Year,” he says.

Each restaurant would have about 80 employees, Barker says. 

The $871,000 project would include interior improvements to part of the recently reconstructed area in the mall, just east of the new north entrance, Barker says.

The project could include constructing a shared 2,800-square-foot kitchen and separate 2,900-square-foot dining rooms and bar areas for the Outback and Bonefish restaurants, he says.

Such a configuration would be a first for Evergreen Restaurant Group, Barker says.

“It’s a unique opportunity that presented itself with the way the building lies with square footage involved,” he says.

Barker adds that even with shared space, separate teams would work in dedicated cooking lines.

“The same cook wouldn’t be cooking meals for both restaurants at once,” he says.

Ryan General Contractors Inc., of Woodinville, Wash., is the contactor on the project, and Merrick Lentz Architect, of Kirkland, Wash., designed it.

Bloomin’ Brands also owns the Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar restaurant chains. Altogether, the parent company has more than 1,500 franchise and corporate-owned restaurants with 95,000 employees in 22 countries, Bloomin’ Brands, website says.

Evergreen Restaurant Group operates two other Bonefish outlets in Washington state—one in Richland and the other in Bothell, Barker says. The franchisee operates 15 Outback restaurants in Washington, including restaurants in Spokane and Spokane Valley.

The new restaurant space is part of $8.5 million in renovations at the north end of the NorthTown Mall between the Kohl’s and Macy’s department stores, where 130,000 square feet of floor space has been demolished and replaced by 63,000 square feet of new retail and restaurant space.

Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. opened a 5,000-square-foot restaurant last month in a portion of the reconstructed mall space west of the north entrance to the mall.