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Orlando Opinions – #22 – Cashless is King

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PFT Media Podcast NetworkTRANSCRIPT: The Daily City has confirmed directly with owner Lou Palo he’s opening up Stasio’s Italian Deli and Market in the front window space of the building at the corner of Robinson & Bumby in the milk district.The expected opening time frame is March/April. The deli will offer Sandwiches made to order on homemade bread, Full espresso bar, handmade Pizza and Breakfast sandwiches and hot breakfasts. The market space with shelving will be stocked with products imported from Italy like olive oils, balsamic vinegars, prosciutto, Pasta from Italy, seasonings, snacks, and bottles of wine.

Maitland City Centre is getting a food hall after all! A new food hall hybrid… (what?) is joining this Maitland project after the Grandstaff/Ashy/Bonomo/Miller team yanked their Spindrift Food Hall concept last year from the 6,756 sq ft space due to “too many new (restaurant) projects hitting the (Maitland) market at the same time.” Ahem. What?

The Maitland City Centre Market food hall hybrid project consists of 5 individual food stall bays ranging from 550-632 sq ft. Each stall will have its own glass garage door w/separate entrance door and individual restrooms.

Each stall will have its own outside seating area linked to their neighbor to allow for patrons to easily dine, drink and experience the various concepts in an open format.

Tenants will sign 3-5 year leases with rates starting at $2500 a month. They’re looking for businesses that love the idea of a food hall but want the ability to open and close by their own hours, create their own unique spaces and continue to build their individual brands.

Small local food makers interested in getting a spot in this market should contact Willow Shambeck (willow@acrefl.com) or Sandi Bargfrede (sandi@acrefl.com).

We have a great interview with Steve Brown, owner of The Glass Knife in Winter Park at 276 S. Orlando Ave (MAP) on the blog. Here’s a snippet but be sure to go read the full story.

Brown chose to make his restaurant 100% cashless. No cash is accepted. Purchases must be made with credit, debit, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Brown was inspired to go cashless after a trip to New York City. While dining at Danny Meyer’s Daily Provisions, he experienced firsthand their cashless payment system and loved it. He learned the main reasons for Meyer’s installation of the system were safety and guest service. His waiters were traveling home by foot or subway with wads of cash. They were easy targets being that they were still wearing their work uniforms. It tipped thieves off. Also without having to travel back and forth to tables and cash registers, waiters had more time to serve guests.

Brown is seeing the improved guest service with this system. In a restaurant with a standard payment system, the register can only be operated by one employee. With the cashless system, any employee in the restaurant can take orders and receive payment. This speeds up the guests’ wait times and leads to more free time for employees to take care of guests. Also, it eliminates the over/under moment at the end of the night for employees using the register that occurs at normal restaurants. There’s no chance an employee can be over or under his cash amount with a cashless system. Everyone is accountable because it’s all on record.

As for safety, there are no waiters with wads of cash in their pockets leaving the restaurant.The bakers working overnight are not working in a building full of cash. The building itself never has cash in it. Everyone is safer.

And finally, some quick hits:

Chela Tequila and Tacos‘ has a January 23rd opening date in the former KASA space in downtown Orlando. What I am excited about most is their Taco Tuesday deal: all you can eat tacos for fifteten bucks. We stopped by there and the employees are working tirelessy. Window clings have gone up, furniture’s been turned on its side and new metal multi-colored chairs were spotted this week by The Daily City.

The SODO District location of Gringos Locos at 517 E. Michigan Street is now open. The exterior has has 2 new temporary signs, a yellow paint job with faux brick accents and a freshly tarred parking lot.

Leguminati announced Tuesday January 9th they’re making a second attempt at opening their first brick & mortar location. This will be a partnership with Foxtail Coffee inside the Hourglass Market in the Hourglass District. Plans call for an opening in the first quarter of 2018. Leguminati will offer plant-based breakfast, lunch, and dinner options seven days a week at this location. Their menu will include everything from CrunchMacs to Breakfast Sandwiches.

Orlando Opinions – #21 – Patti Labelle Cakes

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Patti Labelle dropped 4 new cakes at Orlando Wal Marts recently. The names of the cakes and their descriptions are as follows.

  1. The “On My Own ” Cake – Carrot cake on one side, red velvet on the other and some of Cindy Birdsong’s tears baked into both sides.

  2. The “Somebody Loves You Baby” Cake – 3-layer yellow cake, chocolate fudge icing and the spirit of Diana Ross copying her group’s costumes at the Apollo back in the day.

  3. The “When You’ve Been Blessed” Cake – 3-layer black forest cake with cherry filling and Patti crying on tv about only being known for her song about a prostitute aka Creole Lady Marmalade.

  4. The “New Attitude” Cake – 3-layer caramel cake and caramel icing and her goddaughter Mariah Carey’s clonazepam and champagne flavored diamond drizzle.  

A follow up Health Department inspection of Gators Dockside at 5142 Dr Phillips Blvd is required after their December 15th inspection. 46 violations were discovered that day. The violations including Live, small flying insects in kitchen, bartender touching lemons with her bare hands prior to putting them in drinks, raw ground beef placed right next to ready to eat foods,  Soil residue build-up on the surface of all their dish racks. Read the full list on thedailycity.com. We live in a City that does not make inspections readily and easily available to locals. They’re hidden on a terrible app and a not much better website. Our city doesn’t force restaurant grades to be hung on the front of restaurant windows like in cities like New York. The ONLY people who actively don’t want this have to be restaurant owners. We all deserve to have easier access to this information. You shouldn’t have to depend on the news to hear it.

The City of Orlando Board of Zoning Adjustment is recommending approval of a variance request allowing a liquor store to open despite the the liquor store being:

  1. 0 ft. from a church – Church of Living Waters Apostolic, Inc – This church sent the City a letter of support. It’s located in the same shopping center as the proposed liquor store.

  2. 350 ft. from a church – River of Life Church – Behind the shopping center

  3. 480 ft. from a school – 200 ft right of way

The Board is recommending approval of the Variance Request. The final decision will be presented to Orlando City Council January 22, 2018.

Oasis Liquors submitted the Variance Request for the 2,450 sq ft package store in the shopping center at 5772 N Orange Blossom Trl.

Per LDC Sec. 58.710 a minimum separation of 1,000 ft. from churches and schools is required to operate a full liquor store. If the proposed location is less than 500 ft. from a church or school then it may only be approved through a Variance.

The City considered the following when they made their approval recommendation:

  1. The shared open hours of the church in the same plaza and liquor store should be minimal

  2. Staff does not anticipate any negative consequences to the church from the establishment of the liquor store in the shopping plaza.

  3. The OCPS School (Positive Pathways Transition Center) is located on the north side of Orange Blossom Trail. In this section of OBT the road contains 4 travel lanes as well as substantial shoulders and median. The right of way  is nearly 200 ft. wide. Staff feel that the 200 ft. ROW as well as the location of the liquor store within the core of the shopping center provide adequate buffer from the school.

Go to hell all of you. Why have a damn rule if you continuously break it? Just get rid of the law. No one cares where a liquor store is located and this one example is the best proof of that. Screw churches and school right? RIGHT.

We told you September 2016 that the 2500 home master planned community called The Grow was in the approval process. In August of 2017 a Judge ruled Orange County broke its own growth rules when it approved The Grow. The company behind The Grow is appealing.

This project had some pretty interesting aspects, unusual to your typical Central Florida development. Included in the project was a 9 Acre Working Farm Tract, 21 Acres of Community Gardens, an Event Barn, a Farmer’s Market Street, an Edible Landscape / Food Forest, 12 Miles of All Season Recreational Trails, bike share, 400 acres of preservation lands and more.

These ideas are unique and add to resident life. Perhaps they can be brought into existing neighborhoods.

Locals don’t want this development to get built because they want to preserve  the rural aspect of their area. What they don’t understand is our government is built to serve businesses. Only if these people have good lawyers and money to pay them do they ever stand a chance. And only if you get all those acres labeled as preservation land will you prevent other developments from coming in and trying the same thing.

Orlando Opinions – #20 – The Street Food District

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PFT Media Podcast NetworkTRANSCRIPT: For years Tasty Takeover, Orlando’s original weekly food truck event, took place across two separate rear parking lots in The Milk District: a larger lot behind 2428-2434 E. Robinson St and a smaller one behind 2424 E Robinson St. The lots were connected by a pass-through. They regularly hosted 13 trucks.

Starting Tuesday January 9th, Tasty Takeover moves to the smaller lot and go from from 13 to 10 trucks and a new event called “Tuesday Food Trucks” run by Berio Enterprises LLC will take over the larger lot with an as-yet-undisclosed number of trucks. The lots are next door to each other and both events will run every Tuesday 6-10pm.

The addition of “Tuesday Food Trucks” will give The Milk District two food truck nights running on the same day of the week at the same time of day. Continue Reading …

Orlando Opinions – #19 – There’s a New Sans Serif In Town

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PFT Media Podcast NetworkWelcome back to Orlando Opinions. I’m Mark Baratelli. I’ve got a passion for Orlando and a bod for sin.. Let’s get started!

Back in May we introduced you to The Hourglass District, a mass of older buildings purchased by National Real Estate for the purpose of turning them all into shops and restaurants, really turning a dead corner into a hot spot where people want to be so the developer can build buildings around it and rent them out. Back then the developers told The Daily City that one of the old structures, a dead 3/4 acre car wash structure at 416 Curry Ford Road, would be transformed into a farmers market with gathering spaces and a lounging area.

Those plans have changed according to a rendering we found credited to Interstruct. In that rendering, the dead car wash structure is shown as a food truck park! In the rendering one can see the trucks parked underneath the car wash roof, Adirondack chairs, wooden planters acting as space dividers, lighting, greenery wall, patio covering and what looks like an orange sculpture. You can check out the rending on thedailycity.com.

A 1925 building across the street from the soccer stadium  617 W. Central Ave got approved by the City for a major overhaul of its facade including giant wood and metal walls covering the front of the building, indoor and outdoor bars, a bocce court and ornamental fencing. The name was to be… Tubbs Brewing. This was in 2016. Sine then, no work has been done to execute that facade overhaul. They did however get permits to turn an empty corner space into a food truck and lot beer handout on game days. So there was that.

Now the owners have returned to the City with a new facade plan, this one being MUCH LESS ambitious. Essentially, they’re proposing to preserve the original design of the 90-year old façade, open the previously boarded up window areas, and add a new contemporary storefront design and glazing. The name is to be… Big Squeeze.

Maudlin trucking company is turning the Merita Bread Company building into a 77,600 sq. ft. truck dealership and service center. They’re placing a new 54-ft sign facing I-4 so they can enjoy the same advertising-to-I4 benefit that the Merita sign enjoyed. Since the new I-4 will be signifigantly higher when completed, they need this taller sign. The appearance review board says ok. Now it has to go to City Council. Reember the neon charm of the older Merita bread sign? This new sign will be nothing like it. It’ll be two empty cubes stacked on top of eachother with their brand name (sans serif people, SANS SERIF) on the top. It’s got the charm of an office park cafeteria 6 months before it closes.

The artwork of famed street artist Shepard Fairey/Obey Giant has begun to pop up around Orlando on billboards owned by Outfront Media. Fairey is best known for his Obama “Hope” poster. There are 5 billboards so far. Each signs’ design and message are completely based on prior works by Fairey including a  globe installation inside the Eiffel Tower, an 8-story musal in England and an art show that recently closed in Los Angeles. We called for a press release but they didn’t have one prepared yet. Losers.

And finally, The squealy-boxed Orange County Bar Association turning off their squealy boxes is not the only positive change coming to the North Quarter. Church Street Entertainment, owner of Ember, Latitudes, Cahoots, Chillers, Irish Shannon’s, 180 Skytop Lounge and Crafted, is bringing their brand of FUN to the district. They’re turning the North Quarter Tavern into a “neighborhood focused local pub” and Bar Room into a “modern interpretation of a classic cocktail lounge.”

The two spaces are owned by Craig Ustler, who developed the two original concepts. Ustler has announced he is hanging up his restaurant developing pumps after 17 years to focus on developing Creative Village and Florida Hospital Health Village. Who’s gonna hire the waiters Mister Downtown???? This will be his second and third restaurant handover with the first being handing over the Citrus Restaurant space to Reyes Mezcaleria.

North Quarter is a sleepy suburb made up of over a thousand apartments. The retail is nil, the restaurants are few, and most buildings don’t even feature ground floor retail. These folks bringing a potential shot girls, hot bod contests, three-for-one tequila nights vibe may be just the thing to get North Quarter residents out of their suburb and into the street to get so drunk they can’t push the buttons on their elevator to get back home.

Continue Reading …