The Tampa area will be welcoming two new restaurants to its thriving restaurant scene. American Social and Thai Prime are scheduled to open in the Harbour Island area of the city. Thai Prime plans to open in December, while American Social is scheduled to officially open next August.

This will be American Social’s third location after launching in Fort Lauderdale in 2012 and expanding to downtown Miami last year. The Tampa restaurant’s location at 601 S Harbour Island Blvd. has more than 4,000 square feet of bay-front patio dining and 8,000 square feet of interior space. The target demographic for American Social is working professionals ages 25 to 55.

American Social’s Rick Mijares said in an interview, “With a concept so well received here on the East Coast, we decided to go where we feel is a tremendous market for us, with lots of (Florida State) alumni, friends and family. And the premier destination in the Tampa area is that waterfront location, which is completely one of a kind.”

When the Tampa restaurant is finished, it will contain roughly 400 seats and have three full-service bars. The restaurant will also feature two four-tap private booths for self-serve beer and a self-serve communal beer wall with six taps for craft beer enthusiasts. The American Social locations work hard to source produce, beer and other products locally. Mijares believes that the project will generate around 120 jobs for the Tampa area.

Thai Prime will be coming to the MetWest International retail center, located across from International Plaza and Tampa International Airport. Thai Prime is coming to a 2,613-square-foot space and is designed to have 176 indoor and outdoor seats and a full liquor bar. The target demographic for the Tampa restaurant is the multitude of office workers in the area. Owner David Chong said, “MetWest alone has over 3,500 employees with thousands more employed within 2 miles.”

Chong comes from a multigenerational restaurant family and has worked at Thai Samurai in New Port Richey over the past six years. His son, Michael, a culinary school graduate, and daughter, Krista, the sushi chef at Thai Samurai, are also involved in the new restaurant.