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Orlando Restaurants & Bars


Chemmie

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Tweet from @fergsdepot (restaurant opening at church street station)

@FERGSDEPOT: I have been away.Many issues both internal and external. We are-still moving forward. Elated over light rail opening.FERGS bringing fun to O

If on twitter give Mark a follow and some encouragement! If you've been to their St Pete location you know they'll be a welcome addition that should be resilient once they get going

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I went to downtown to have a quick bit last nite around 7 pm. Flame boiler was empty, Red was not open, Ferg still saying opening fall 2013. Every restaurants that I walk past are empty on church street except Cheviche and Hamburger Mary. What is the deal with this town?  So many people living downtown but church street is empty.

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Part of the problem is that with no retail the people who live downtown have to get in their cars and end up eating elsewhere while out running errands - they also have to spend too much on rent yet still require a car because the city refuses to make places to shop a priority. When all the folks living downtown no longer have to leave for necessities and have extra money to spend, guess what? They'll spend money downtown! You would suppose someone at DDB would have thought of that by now, but instead, crickets.

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Tuesday is probably the deadest night you could possibly pick to go out. On top of that Church Street is just not very popular on weekdays if there is no event going on. Thornton Park does not have this problem nearly as much. On most nights the eateries in Thornton Park are usually pretty populated and there is constant pedestrian activity around Lake Eola.

Edited by Pete C
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Thornton Park is certainly prospering (need we mention the most successful spots are the most moderately priced?) but even it's not immune. IZA has closed and HUE had been languishing for some time before its demise (its replacement does sound interesting, though). South Eola is still not full (in spaces that would be perfect for actual stores!) and, I saw somewhere that 'Mingos announced they were going to do catering from their location (which has previously been a sign of imminent demise for earlier tenants).

 

Bottom line: too many restaurants, not enough shops.

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Because a car is still required to live downtown since there is no retail, it's just as easy to eat elsewhere (and less expensively) than downtown (Mills50, SoDo, Colonialtown, the Milk District have all taken advantage of that). Most of the folks living in the core aren't making that much money (a lot of the condo towers are college kids and twenty-somethings with lots of roommates; of course, the retirees on fixed incomes are a whole other story) - for the single-family folks just outside the core, there's really no reason to go downtown except the occasional special event. 

 

Until you can get a captive audience downtown that doesn't need to leave and doesn't have to maintain an automobile, don't expect much to change.

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Some love from USA Today for DTO's independent restaurant scene (and a few in WP, too, of course). ;)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/experience/food-and-wine/best-of-food-and-wine/food/2014/07/14/orlandos-best-non-chain-restaurants/12418639/

 

Good list, however The Coop is a huge disappointment. If it didn't have John Rivers' name attached to it it would be on life support already. No way that place lasts unless the food improves drastically.

 

My other complaint is that while both of the Petrakis's restaurants made the list, neither of Brandon McGlamery's restaurants were mentioned.

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NYC import, Shake Shack, has opened their doors in Winter Park, adjacent to the new Trader Joe's.  While on the surface this may not seem like a significant story, it does say something about the emerging "Winter Park brand" that recently seems to have gained a lot of national and international attention. 

 

Story here:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/os-pictures-winter-park-shake-shack-party-20140729,0,626484.photogallery

 

Since the chain tends to add a few additional locations in the markets they enter (as is the case with Miami), my hope would be that they seek out a downtown location (although I suspect they'll plant roots on I-Drive and/or Sand Lake first).

Edited by prahaboheme
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I too had a bad experience there. Our pizza took over an hour to cook and they shorted us half our chicken wings. I don't see how this place will succeed. It seems that a lot of the downtown restaurants get a lot of their business from the lunch crowd. Seeing as this places pizzas take so long to cook, nobody can have pizza for lunch there.

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Like many of you, despite the long wait for it to open, I always imagined WOB to be the place that might stick for the first time since Lee's closed. Nevertheless, even I have been amazed at some of the crowds I've seen walking to Publix. Last Thursday, for example, at 1:30 in the afternoon there was even a crowd - who knew? It's good to see our localfolks finally getting a handle on what will actually work in the neighbor hood (other than another 7-Eleven!)

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I too had a bad experience there. Our pizza took over an hour to cook and they shorted us half our chicken wings. I don't see how this place will succeed. It seems that a lot of the downtown restaurants get a lot of their business from the lunch crowd. Seeing as this places pizzas take so long to cook, nobody can have pizza for lunch there.

I thought the pizza was fantastic and not in any way worse than the Chicago deep dish pizza I had in Chicago just days later.  This stuff takes a while to cook.  They don't surprise anyone.  Its written in the menu.  If you need fast pizza get the thin crust.  

 

Go try Giordano's pizza (we are lucky enough to have a few local franchises) and you will have the same wait time.  No way around that.  Not sure Orlando is ready for this stuff but glad its here.  Cant wait to try the Italian Beef sandwich as the Beefstro on Colonial is now a goner.  

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I thought the pizza was fantastic and not in any way worse than the Chicago deep dish pizza I had in Chicago just days later.  This stuff takes a while to cook.  They don't surprise anyone.  Its written in the menu.  If you need fast pizza get the thin crust.  

 

Go try Giordano's pizza (we are lucky enough to have a few local franchises) and you will have the same wait time.  No way around that.  Not sure Orlando is ready for this stuff but glad its here.  Cant wait to try the Italian Beef sandwich as the Beefstro on Colonial is now a goner.  

This is true, I've also been to deep dish places in Chicago and it's at least a 40 minute minimum for a smaller sized pizza to cook. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mingos Downtown Is Closed; UCF Mingos Uncertain

 

Posted overnight by Scott Joseph:

 

http://www.scottjosephorlando.com/index.php/news/2743-mingos-downtown-is-closed-ucf-mingos-uncertain

 

Of course, Nik Patel's problems didn't help, but this is just the latest failure in an unbroken string of overpriced eateries in a neighborhood that needs retail so much more.

 

Scott has also posted a review on WOB and a "sort-of" review on SoCo lately (he's a consultant of theirs) - check them out also!

Edited by spenser1058
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