Church Street Station

[Universe_Explorer]

What a great party scene when you put Fergs and Graffiti together.  Both ownership seem to really know how to throw a party.  .  

Yeah, I can see thais area being quite popular before OCSC games when the new stadium is built and Magic games (when they start trying to win again, sigh...)

[John Hargrove]

Couple of updates on this and Church Street in general ... 

Ferg's is now open. It's fantastic. I've had a meal there 3 times in the last 4 days, if that says anything. Food quality is excellent, service is great, the interior is nicely designed. Two full dining rooms, 2 indoors bars, an outdoor bar and plenty of outdoor seating. Love this place. I really hope everyone stops in and checks it out. I feel like it could become an anchor in this area. Plenty of older folks and families in there as well -- which is a great thing to see downtown.

Wahlburger's is open as well and has had a line out the door and down the block for the last 5 hours ... ? Pretty nuts.

Good stuff for this area.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2016 by castorvx

[gibby]

I stepped into both of those places last night.  The area was crowded.  It's great.

[prahaboheme]

Church Street is still nowhere near its 90s heyday but I do agree that these two recent additions are an exciting transformation.

The Cheyenne Saloon is probably the best space downtown. It's a shame that it's sitting there just begging for life.

[John Hargrove]

Line was down the block today as well. Couldn't ask for a better opening.

 

[Jernigan]

Is this place already open?  They are pulling permits for 128 W Church

http://www.maddeyscraftcru.com

Edited February 22, 2016 by Jernigan

[John Hargrove]

1 hour ago, Jernigan said:

Is this place already open?  They are pulling permits for 128 W Church

http://www.maddeyscraftcru.com

As of Saturday they had a big "Coming Soon" sign hanging over the railing next to the tracks. Believe this is the spot where many locations have failed. Beer snob place with whiskey cellar, Chicago's Stuffed Pizza, etc.

Maybe it will survive given all the new activity in the area. 

[Jernigan]

Tremont Tower will help that location 

[UngaBungalow]

They've had a number of stand alone events but they're not open yet.

[HankStrong]

On ‎2‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 6:22 PM, castorvx said:

Ferg's is now open. It's fantastic. I've had a meal there 3 times in the last 4 days, if that says anything. Food quality is excellent, service is great, the interior is nicely designed. Two full dining rooms, 2 indoors bars, an outdoor bar and plenty of outdoor seating. Love this place. I really hope everyone stops in and checks it out. I feel like it could become an anchor in this area. Plenty of older folks and families in there as well -- which is a great thing to see downtown.

I suppose it's a shame we listened to the people leaving.

We walked up to Ferg's weekend before last and turned around.  As we walked up and peeked in, it appeared D-E-A-D on a Saturday night @ dinner time.  We hesitated because of that and because there wasn't a soul in sight that seemed to work there, except someone behind the bar.  We turned around and started to leave, but I said we should go ahead and give it a shot.  Our group decided to try it and we started walking back up to the door.  A reasonable looking group of 4 (probably 30-somethings??) was walking out and they said "Don't bother, it sucks."  We went to Ceviche instead.

[John Hargrove]

5 hours ago, Jernigan said:

Tremont Tower will help that location 

Is that still a thing? Haven't heard anything in months.

[John Hargrove]

2 hours ago, HankStrong said:

I suppose it's a shame we listened to the people leaving.

We walked up to Ferg's weekend before last and turned around.  As we walked up and peeked in, it appeared D-E-A-D on a Saturday night @ dinner time.  We hesitated because of that and because there wasn't a soul in sight that seemed to work there, except someone behind the bar.  We turned around and started to leave, but I said we should go ahead and give it a shot.  Our group decided to try it and we started walking back up to the door.  A reasonable looking group of 4 (probably 30-somethings??) was walking out and they said "Don't bother, it sucks."  We went to Ceviche instead.

Wonder what they were unhappy with. Ferg's has a small menu at the moment. I could see the lack of options combined with poor service getting that reaction. There have been a couple of times where the hostess stand (which is just a table out front) is just completely unoccupied because the hostess has to make the long trek to the back dining room and back.

In any case, I think the place is great and at least worth checking out. 

[prahaboheme]

The dining hall in the old train station waiting room at Fergs is a very cool space. It reminds me of beer halls I've frequented in Munich.

[Jernigan]

51 minutes ago, castorvx said:

Is that still a thing? Haven't heard anything in months.

Yes - employees that park in that lot have been advised that the lot will be gone in the coming weeks 

[John Hargrove]

3 hours ago, Jernigan said:

Yes - employees that park in that lot have been advised that the lot will be gone in the coming weeks 

That's good to hear.

[prahaboheme]

What's the status of Walgreens?

[AndyPok1]

As much as @UngaBungalow and I have our differences (feel free to unblock me from Facebook whenever  ), big hats off to scouring this project out.  I never look at the HPB minutes, so it completely eluded me.

Looks like a bar in correlation with OCSC is eyeing up the giant ugly storefront next to Ceviche.  I've seen people wandering in and out every few weeks, but wasn't sure if anything was happening.  http://bungalower.com/2016/05/29/orlando-city-soccer-open-venue-church-street/

http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2016/05/HPB2016-00086-123-W-Church.pdf

...

And it appears Ceviche is going to have minor alterations at the same time: http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-planning/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2016/05/HPB2016-00093-125-W-Church.pdf

[HankStrong]

I'm curious as to what they could need at that location.  Within a year or so they will have all the space they could possibly use at the stadium.

Gift shop? Fan club bar?  Offices?  Ticket booth? 

 

I do have to ask what you've done to be banned.  I only used FB for a few weeks until I determined it was so full of textual sewage that I had to leave and never look back.  About 1/4 of the people I was connected to apparently are mentally deficient on social media.  Just flat-out idiots.  Cat pictures, food pictures, posts begging for validation, insane political statements that could be proved untrue in 5 seconds with a Google search, jumping on bizarre bandwagons, etc.  There was also the flood of people you intentionally cut out of your life for one reason or another, who were primed and ready for you to join FB, so they could instantly re-bond with you within 15 minutes of joining.

Which sins did you commit? 

[AndyPok1]

1 minute ago, HankStrong said:

I'm curious as to what they could need at that location.  Within a year or so they will have all the space they could possibly use at the stadium.

Gift shop? Fan club bar?  Offices?  Ticket booth? 

 

I do have to ask what you've done to be banned.  I only used FB for a few weeks until I determined it was so full of textual sewage that I had to leave and never look back.  About 1/4 of the people I was connected to apparently are mentally deficient on social media.  Just flat-out idiots.  Cat pictures, food pictures, posts begging for validation, insane political statements that could be proved untrue in 5 seconds with a Google search, jumping on bizarre bandwagons, etc.  There was also the flood of people you intentionally cut out of your life for one reason or another, who were primed and ready for you to join FB, so they could instantly re-bond with you within 15 minutes of joining.

Which sins did you commit? 

My assumption is home bar.  Harry Buffalo/Church St in general sort of fill that space right now.  If they open their own and then have a march to the stadium, it adds another vertical.  I'm more intrigued about how they'll cooperate with their current sponsor bars.

--

We can take the other discussion to the Coffee House if you'd like, but I want to keep this on topic.

[popsiclebrandon]

Lot of soccer clubs own bars. Even the Tampa Bay Rowdies do so this is an easy decision for them and will do killer business on game days. The rest of the year they should do well with the year round nature of soccer around the world.

[John Hargrove]

If the hotel gets built, along with the platform integration ... I think this stretch of Church might be coming back to life. It has been struggling for some time. Very dead at times.

[Dale]

Based on recent reports, I'd expect Tremont to start any day now.

[UngaBungalow]

It's a Home Bar with a retail aspect. Apparently. I didn't get an official statement from them so I couldn't include the retail part. 

 

[Jernigan]

On February 22, 2016 at 9:23 PM, prahaboheme said:

What's the status of Walgreens?

Lots of permitting this month including applying for the 1st floor interior demo.  

[HankStrong]

Isn't there supposed to be a home bar attached to the outside of the new stadium?