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Mills/50


camstrang

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I met an one of the main people working on The Gallery at Mills Park at Wednesday's grand opening of The Fresh Market.  He told me that the apartments will start going vertical soon.  And some bad news: the apartments will be wood framed.  This means it will be one of the area's first five story wood frame buildings built using modern techniques (I know some of The Plaza at University is also wood frame).  While he insured me that the wood frame would be sturdy I still just worry about tall wood frame in a hurricane prone area such as Florida.  Heck even a good tornado storm could do massive damage on wood frame (dare I mention the night of the tornadoes that struck back in 98? Glad I wasn't living in wood frame then!)  

 

Other info shared:

  • DeBartolo is paying for the shared retention pond, 
  • Pelloni still has not formed plans for its section of the property yet,
  • DeBartolo is still pressuring them for a hotel,
  • the apartments are designed around the view- expect open floorplans with views of the skyline from just inside the front doors and throughout the spaces.

 

Once the construction goes vertical I was invited to take a hard hat tour of the site, I'll make sure to post any info and pictures I get from that.

 

BTW I posted a huge photo update of the Grand Opening on The Fresh Market on Friday.  An update of the The Market at Mills Park that I got while at the opening should go live on Monday or Tuesday.

 

2013-07-31+09.43.49.jpg

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That's true but will it be facing Fresh Market or rows of SUVs? Matt, thanks for the work you put into the blog - the layout and all relevant info makes it one of the best I've read. Question from the site plan - is Nebraska going to be treated as a through street? It seems like THAT could have been a "master planned" complete street that the developers could have really made a centerpiece

of the project tying in the trail, the cafe seating, future LYMMO or carshare etc

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Thanks for the kind words...trying hard to build something useful. Alway feel free to send feedback.

 

That street was a point of contention mainly with the exit on the back side. Neighbors didn't want people to turn right onto Haven and cut through Lake Formosa. It feels more like an entry than a street. For example I think that the entry to SoDo feels more "street like."

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  • 2 months later...
  • 8 months later...

Those steel structures went up seemingly overnight! The Brass Tap is going in to the structure to the north, and Segafredo into the taller one to the southwest. In the rendering, it looks like it will be two stories, plus a rooftop dining. Here's the plan:

 

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z92TqNr.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

The wife and I went up to Fresh Market this weekend and stopped into that new Giraffas for lunch.  We won't be doing that again.  Would you like a little salt with your salt?  Maybe some salt?

 

It was almost $25 for lunch for two and I wouldn't have paid 1/3 of that for what we received. 

 

We walked in and were greeted by an extremely nice girl who asked if this was our first visit.  We confirmed it was and began to look at the menu television.  She pointed out the paper menus to us instead and told us we could have a seat to decide what we wanted to order.  We sat there until I finally asked about ordering and she told us that we had to get up and go order at the cash register.  Then why did she almost insist we take a paper menu and sit down?  There was no one in line when we came in, so we weren't clogging the process.  I would've ordered 5 minutes earlier if she hadn't moved us across the entire restaurant to sit down.  I saw them do this with several people while we were there.  It doesn't make sense.

 

The food is delivered to your table.  My steak was decently prepared, a lot of gristle, but it was prepared well.  My wife's chicken was cooked well, but a bit bland.  Their sauces were nice.  This was the best part.  The sides were extremely salty.  My wife is a salt fan, I'm notsomuch.  She thought the food was salted to the point of being almost inedible.  This meant it was inedible to me.  I don't often leave food on my plate.  I did here and it was a lot.

 

They did come around and ask how the food was.  We mentioned it was extremely salty.  She told us that she would mention that to the kitchen.  I'm not sure if she actually did, because we didn't see her again.

 

Overpriced (by a lot)

Over salted (by a lot)

Underwhelming (by a lot)

Edited by HankStrong
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Hankstrong, sorry to hear that.  Went there yesterday and had the shrimp-quinoa salad and it was quite good and affordable.  Service was overall good I thought for a counter service establishment as they did check on us more than once and bussed our table while we sat, which doesn't happen at most fast-casual type restaurants.

 

Didn't have the "please sit" experience, sounds kinda akward.  There were maybe 15 others in the restaurant when I was there, good mix of demographics.

 

Also, ate at Firebirds.  Good steak, nice atmosphere.  A tier below Hillstone/Houstons and Flemings maybe, but can see it doing well.  Service was good, not as great as Hillstone's imho, although better priced.

Edited by tm68
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Hankstrong, sorry to hear that.  Went there yesterday and had the shrimp-quinoa salad and it was quite good and affordable.  Service was overall good I thought for a counter service establishment as they did check on us more than once and bussed our table while we sat, which doesn't happen at most fast-casual type restaurants.

 

Didn't have the "please sit" experience, sounds kinda akward.  There were maybe 15 others in the restaurant when I was there, good mix of demographics.

 

Also, ate at Firebirds.  Good steak, nice atmosphere.  A tier below Hillstone/Houstons and Flemings maybe, but can see it doing well.  Service was good, not as great at Hillstone's, although better priced.

 

I'm going to have to agree with tm68, went there last week and loved it.  The chicken sandwich with bacon and egg was a steal (I thought) at 6.90 and tasted great.  I thought the atmosphere and service was pretty nice as well. 

 

On the lots of salt bit - that's kind of a Brazilian and Latin America thing.  Argentinian and Brazilian steakhouses all load up on the salt. And it's not just restaurants, people cook that way at home too from my experience.  I'm from Chile and every cook out is a salt fest. Could see that being an issue for some but it's to be expected.

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I'm going to have to agree with tm68, went there last week and loved it.  The chicken sandwich with bacon and egg was a steal (I thought) at 6.90 and tasted great.  I thought the atmosphere and service was pretty nice as well. 

 

On the lots of salt bit - that's kind of a Brazilian and Latin America thing.  Argentinian and Brazilian steakhouses all load up on the salt. And it's not just restaurants, people cook that way at home too from my experience.  I'm from Chile and every cook out is a salt fest. Could see that being an issue for some but it's to be expected.

 

I've eaten at many Latin/South American places and I've never experienced this massive salt content thing.  I will defer to you as an expert, but it was very unpleasant and not what I'm accustomed to at other restaurants from the same region.

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Didn't have the "please sit" experience, sounds kinda akward. 

 

It really was.  I still can't grasp why she was asking people to do it.  They have a very nice 2 flat screen menu on the wall.

 

Glad your experience was better.  There are a million other places in Orlando to eat, this one will not be one we go back to.  Sorry Giraffa, "sua comida não é bom para mim!"

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You should have said something. You aren't obligated to of course but with a new place you definitely would have been doing them a favor. There are other restaurants where I can see this happening in - but a quick comment could have probably resulted in an instant change.

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You should have said something. You aren't obligated to of course but with a new place you definitely would have been doing them a favor. There are other restaurants where I can see this happening in - but a quick comment could have probably resulted in an instant change.

 

You must have missed the part where I specifically mentioned that I *did* say something.  She just never came back.  I took that as her answer.

 

 

ETA: It wasn't like she left, she was back walking around asking people how their food was.  She just didn't come near us again.

 

I was kind, polite, and reasonable.  I told her that it was so salty, it was inedible.  My wife mentioned that, as someone who likes her food with more salt, she found it overbearing as well. She just said she would mention it to the kitchen, smiled, and left. She then moved on to the table next to us.

Edited by HankStrong
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I meant the fact that their ordering process wasn't clear and if they tell you to take a seat that may need to be clear that you'll still be ordering at the counter.

I saw a table of 12 once grab the menus at Tijuana Flats and take a seat and wait and wait before an employee took a hint that they didn't understand what was happening. Gave TF the benefit of the doubt but at a new place they shouldn't assume

Edited by Jernigan
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Cool.  Yeah, I misunderstood.

 

It was really odd because of how insistent she was that we take a seat.  She even led us to the nice window area up front.  In hindsight, it might have made more sense if we were fighting with fussy kids or dripping with sweat from running 8 miles to get there or soaked by a rain shower or obviously disabled and needing to sit down.  The weirdness is compounded by the fact that she did the same thing to others as they came in.  It was confusing, but you are right, I didn't ask anyone else why she did that or suggest they "stop the madness!"

 

But ultimately, it's not close to our home and it was so far from being good (for us) that it just won't be on our radar.  There are countless places to eat in Orlando.

 

 

 

Speaking of salty things and Mills/50, has anyone tried The Salt Room?  I have sinus issues and have wondered if that actually works or if it's just mumbo-jumbo type stuff?

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  • 1 month later...

The GLBT Community Center in Mills 50 plans upgrades

 

http://bungalower.com/2014/10/glbt-community-center-mills-50-plans-upgrades/#more-20423

 

Thanks to Matt for picking up on this and glad to see this underway - that stretch of Mills/50 has needed some TLC. The Center is an important community organization and glad to see them doing some work on a good '50's-era building.

Edited by spenser1058
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  • 1 month later...
The Center to begin renovation project soon
 
More on The Center's redo - it sounds like it will definitely improve that block of Mills. Here's hoping they don't lose the 50's feel of the exterior while doing the necessary gutting of the interior.
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I would like to rename this thread Mills/50 since there are lots more things going on than just the DeBartolo development, but nevertheless....

 

Matt picked this up in the Bungalower for a restoration of the old, old, old (even before my time!) restoration of the Cameo Theatre sign, which I think is awesome:

 

http://bungalower.com/2014/11/city-approves-historic-sign-restoration-cameo-theater-building-mills-50/

 

 

While this chugs along, we continue to wait for the return of the Beacham sign on Orange Ave. - how many years now? *sigh*.

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