Two food halls on their way and more in our start-your-week-smart feature we creatively call "10 Things to Know This Week."
10 Things to Know This Week
May 28
By Mark Baratelli
Outdoor Food Hall- Lake Nona Land Company, LLC is requesting a temporary use permit from the City of Orlando to allow the development of an open-air food, entertainment, and recreation venue, what we're calling an outdoor food hall, at 6877 Tavistock Lakes Blvd in Lake Nona. The venue will be comprised of repurposed shipping containers filled with food makers, bars, candy shops and retail shopping. Also present will be a dog park, kids recreation area and mobile food vendors.The project goes before City Council this week.
Oviedo Food Hall- Speaking of food halls, Michael Collard Properties is developing a 5.600 sq ft food hall called "The Food Factory" within the Oviedo on the Park development. It will contain seven micro-restaurants, a brewery, a 1,600 sq ft Wine Bar and dog friendly outdoor seating. Opening is planned for late 2019.
The Ultimate E-Bike - Over the past 8 months a start up called The Soil Company has been engaged with NASA and other scientists looking for a natural solution to remove human created pollutants (like oil and diesel) from soil and groundwater. To fund the startup, it's selling an E-Bike they spent the last 12 months developing called "The Soil Bike." The bike has a 12 miles per hour top speed and a 50 mile range with pedal assist. Sales begin next month.
Putnam in Their Place - Publix announced May 25th that it has officially suspended corporate-funded political contributions after the public backlash it received for supporting the self-proclaimed "NRA sellout," Adam Putnam. The announcement came the same day as an in-store peaceful protest took place in several cities across the state called for earlier in the week by Parkland High School shooting survivor and anti-gun activist David Hogg.
They Still Love the Styrofoam- And since we're on the subject of Publix, did you know the City of Orlando is not allowed to create a city-wide ban on styrofoam? In 2016 Publix spent $1 million "lobbying lawmakers to pass legislation that would pre-empt local governments from enacting bans on Styrofoam containers" according to the Miami Herald. The legislation passed. No city in Florida except Miami can pass anti-styrofoam laws.
SODO Beer Spot- Rockpit Brewing is coming to the SODO District at 10 West Illiana Street behind Cecil's BBQ restaurant. This small batch craft brewery, taproom and home brew shop will offer rare, one-off, eclectic and everyday beers. The home brew shop inside the brewery will be run by Orlando Homebrew Supplies. The facility is expected to open July.
New Pizza Maker- Peppino's Pizza in the Hourglass District will re-open September 1st as F&D Italian Wood-fired Kitchen. It's been purchased by the owners of F&D Kitchen and Bar in Lake Mary. We told you February the restaurant was inspected twice and instead of the allotted 27 seats allowed by the health department, it was found to have over 60. When we spoke to the owner back then, he stated that before he moved his restaurant into the space, he was expecting to have over 80 seats, but due to the restaurant being on a septic system and not city sewer, the number of allowed seats was reduced to 27. We spoke to the landlord of the building National Real Estate this week and according to them prior to the sale of the business they put the building onto city sewer.
What Could Go Wrong?- It was uncovered by the ACLU that the Orlando Police Department is using facial recognition to spot people in real time. OPD said earlier in the week that it's only on 8 cameras and they're not testing it on the public. However, during a Thursday press conference, Police Chief John Mina revealed that that was not the case, that downtown Orlando has 3 cameras already using this software with no prior announcement by Orlando Police Department or the City of Orlando. The software is called Rekognition and is provided for a nominal charge by Amazon.
Goodbye to Long Running Oblivion- May 26th was the final day of business for the Oblivion Tap Room at 5101 E. Colonial Drive. The restaurant and bar opened in 2011 and was purchased in 2016 by new owners who were customers and fans of the restaurant. The current owners did not disclose the reason for the closure to media, but on a recent visit to the establishment by The Daily City, it was clear to anyone in the facility that there was an issue with the roof. It happened to be a a rainy evening and multiple buckets throughout the restaurant were being used by the owners to collect water that was seeping through the roof. The Daily City did not reach out to the landlord for comment.
Saving Lives and Being Awesome- Thanks to John Morgan Esquire, it is now legal to smoke medical marijuana in the State of Florida. The state's ban on smoking medical marijuana was ruled unconstitutional. After the ruling, Morgan tweeted "Baboom! I get (expletive deleted) done! Where's my Jack Daniels?" That last sentence is a fabrication. Please do not sue us, future governor of Florida and current reigning King of Medical Marijuana.