In the halcyon year of 1984, a certain Ms. Clara Peller pointedly inquired, “Where’s the beef?” Wendy’s was the answer way back then, but if asked that question today, we’d surely point her and any other hungry souls in search of meaty sustenance to the all-star roster of restaurants participating in Orlando Burger Week 2021.…
Rollins College’s Cornell Fine Arts Museum is changing its name in September, as the first step toward moving the museum into a new home in downtown Winter Park. Once completed, the new Rollins Museum of Art will be located one block off Park Avenue, at the intersection of Interlachen and New England avenues across from…
As the travel industry begins to climb out of the biggest slowdown in its history, a slew of recent studies gives us a better understanding of what the coming months will entail. Even as the delta variant of coronavirus causes new alarm, there’s increasing evidence that people think the worst is now behind us. A…
UPDATE: 07/29/21 – The agreement between DCL and Port Everglades must still undergo a final legal review for by the Office of the County Attorney. Despite last year’s unprecedented shutdown of the cruise industry, Disney is pushing forward with its plans to add three new ships in the coming years. That will more than double the…
Longtime downtown Orlando watering hole Finnhenry’s Public House is set to close as soon at the week’s end, a casualty of COVID-19’s impact on the local nightlife and entertainment sector. As reported by the Orlando Business Journal on Tuesday, court records obtained by OBJ show that the downtown bar, sued by the landlord in May…
It’s back! The nine-day musical tribute to the Grateful Dead and the life of Jerry Garcia — Daze Between — is returning for another year to Winter Park’s New Standard for another long, strange trip through the local music scene. From Aug. 1-8, it’s Dead and Dead only at the New Standard with different Central Florida artists…
Orlando Legals Legal Public Notices ALL ABOARD STORAGE NOTICE OF PUBLIC SALE Personal property of the following tenants will be sold at public sale to the highest bidder to satisfy a rental lien in accordance with Florida Statutes, Sections: A83.801 – 83.809. All units are assumed to contain general household goods unless otherwise indicated. Viewing of…
It’s been an incredibly long time coming, but the UCF Knights football team will finally get the opportunity to shake off its stepchild status among Florida colleges. The Knights will play the University of Florida three times in the next 12 years. UCF will play Florida on Oct. 5, 2024; Sep. 14, 2030; and Sep.…
Florida has become a COVID-19 hotspot and cases continue to rise every day. Orange County is not exempt from that spike, with Mayor Jerry Demings noting during a briefing on Monday that the county is seeing 1,000 new COVID-19 cases per day. “Those are the numbers we saw at the highest peak last year,” Demings said.…
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has suspended the concealed weapons permits of 22 people who were allegedly involved in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat (and a challenger to Ron DeSantis for governor) announced the move on Twitter. She noted that the people were “involved in the insurrection…
The number of places that Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are welcome is dwindling. The little-liked trolls among the neo-conservative movement are even having trouble setting up in their own backyard. A press conference from the pair in Washington, D.C., about imprisoned alleged participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots was derailed entirely by…
Orlando restaurant Reyes Mezcaleria will be holding this month’s “En La Mesa” dining event this week, with a unique menu on offer just for the night. On Thursday, July 29, at 7 p.m., Executive Chef Wendy Lopez will be whipping up a custom bill of fare with offerings changing with the season. The dinner is promised to…
Optimistically assuming things improve on the COVID front in Florida and that shows are still possible in a few months — hey!! — Sheer Mag and Soul Glo are returning to Orlando in October as one hell of a package tour. The two fast-rising punk/hardcore stars have each individually played Orlando in the past —…
Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph is giving his employees two options: the shot or the door. Randolph sent out a memo declaring that all of his employees would need to receive a COVID-19 vaccination or find a new job. The memo said that vaccination would be a condition for employment in the office for…
Matt Gaetz’s soon-to-be extended family is telling tales out of school. Roxanne Luckey, the sister of Gaetz fiancée Ginger Luckey, has posted a series of TikTok videos calling the Florida congressman a “pedophile” and alleging that he set her up on dates with a much older man while she was a teen. The first video…
New restaurant concept Bitebound, the brainchild of sisters Beatriz and Daniela Oruna, is coming to Winter Park at the end of this year with promises of serving up a plethora of healthy food bowl options. As reported by What Now Orlando, Bitebound will open in December of this year in the (also coming soon) City Place mixed-use…
We’ve got plenty of high-end omakase experiences here in Orlando — Kabooki Sushi, Kadence, Soseki, Tukumi-Tei, Sushi Pop, to name just a few — but when Soupa Saiyan 3 opens near UCF this fall, they’ll offer a casual omakase amid anime surroundings. Soupakase, a sub-concept within the Dragon Ball Z-themed noodle house, will offer the…
A post-pandemic squeeze is forcing restaurants that have long relied on underpaid labor to re-evaluate their practices. Throughout Orlando, restaurant ownership groups are responding to the pressure by raising wages and adding benefits. In May, Maxine’s on Shine owners Kirt and Maxine Earhart increased base wages to $10 an hour and offered employees a week…
In spite of Donald Trump’s victory in Florida during the 2020 presidential election, Mar-a-Lago sycophant and Lake County representative Anthony Sabatini is calling for an audit of Florida’s five most populous counties. Sabatini is asking for an audit of the vote in Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Orange counties. The five counties Sabatini is…
Magical Dining Month is back in 2021, bringing more-affordable eats from some of Orlando’s most beloved restaurants. Visit Orlando’s annual culinary celebration is coming back from Aug. 27 to Oct. 3 with a longer list of participating venues to celebrate their 16th year of providing Orlandoans with access to the most popular restaurants for an…
A Florida man washed ashore in a homemade bubble float in Flagler County, bringing an end to his quest to walk on water all the way to New York. According to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Reza Baluchi began his trip in St. Augustine on Friday and washed ashore in The Hammock area near Palm…
Arch classic-rock outliers Steely Dan on Monday announced a North American tour set to start in a whiplash-inducing two months and — hold on to your necks — there’s a two-night stand in Orlando penciled in. Steely Dan, now led solely by founding member Donald Fagen after the passing of creative foil Walter Becker in 2017, rolled out the…
Florida leads the nation in coronavirus cases, after a massive surge of infections this week. According to the state Department of Health’s most recent report, over 73,000 new cases were reported in the state in the week beginning on July 16. That’s up from just over 45,000 new cases the week before. The state also…
Eight years after its high-profile opening in Audubon Park, East End Market is getting a makeover that will see the food hall and shopping venue add a new locals-only retail store, cocktail lounge and chef’s table concept. The Neighbors, a joint initiative from Jacob Zepf of Freehand Goods, East End Market owner John Rife, Domu’s…
After the deadly collapse last month of a condominium building in Surfside, state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried called Friday for the Legislature to update condominium regulations and for the creation of a statewide task force to try to help prevent such disasters. Fried, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022, also said…
SeaWorld has just dropped a cursed cache of new details about the theme park’s first go at Howl-O-Scream, and it’s shaping up to be ghastly fun. A teaser was released by the park on Friday for a new haunted house, Beneath the Ice. Based in an Arctic Circle research facility where something seems to have…
It’s said that music can heal. Well, Re:Charge — a joint holistic event by Creative City Project and Timucua Arts Foundation — is explicitly leveraging that power. Beginning tonight and going through next weekend, the Re:Charge series is somewhere between a concert and meditation. A big, empty space in the Colonial Promenade shopping center will be decked out in…
@nots0swift nooooo one roasts like Gaston ##disneyworld ##gaston ##beautyandthebeast ##wdw ##waltdisneyworldparks @gfoltzinator ♬ original sound – Steph Swift While there’s an entire list of things he claims to be the best at, there are really only two qualifications for being Walt Disney World’s Gaston. You have to be handsome and you have to be quick on…
After making it into the Final Four of a Reddit competition for best county in Florida, Orange County finally sank to the bottom of the sea. The hate-a-thon has raged on for over 60 days on the Florida subreddit, with a county being deleted from the map each day (under the guise of being claimed…
Sometimes the simulation glitches and gives us something a little too on the nose. That’s the only way Orlando — in the midst of a crisis of affordability as one small part of America’s new Gilded Age — could support a Great Gatsby-themed speakeasy. Gatsby on Church is opening next Thursday with a party that…
If you were the type of person to believe in signs from the universe, you likely wouldn’t be attending a music festival in Florida right now. Still, the cosmos offered up one more chance for Rolling Loud Miami attendees to rethink the decision when a massive screen collapsed one day before the festival was set…
After a series of stutter-starts, Disney Cruise Line will return to sailing on Monday, Aug. 9. The company shared an announcement to their official parks Twitter account, noting that the Disney Dream would set sail from Port Canaveral next month. While the cruise traffic has been stopped, that terminal has been hard at work updating…
Gov. Ron DeSantis has drawn national attention for bucking federal health-care officials over the handling of the novel coronavirus, but a group of Florida physicians said Thursday the governor’s push to reopen the state and block precautions are a main reason for a sharp increase in the number of residents suffering from COVID-19. Bernard Ashby,…
Florida could place Ben & Jerry’s on a “scrutinized” companies list that prohibits government contracts or investments, because the ice-cream maker plans to stop doing business in territories it believes Israel shouldn’t control. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis on Thursday advised Ben & Jerry’s and its London-based parent company Unilever that Florida would be…
Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down Thursday on his opposition to mask mandates for public-school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying he would call for a special legislative session if the federal government moves toward requiring masks in schools. “There’s been talk about potentially people advocating at the federal level, imposing compulsory masks on kids,” DeSantis…
Hoi Nguyen, the man behind such buzzy Mills 50 concepts as King Bao, Poke Hana, Chi-Kin and Matcha House, will bring a Mongolian barbecue joint to Colonial Drive this fall. Nguyen, along with his cousins Vinnie Le (a partner at Poke Hana Windermere) and his brother Joe Le (a partner at Chi-Kin), will open the…
Are you in need of a backpack to start the school year? Faith Assembly Church is hosting back-to-school events this Saturday at 9 a.m. until supplies last. The church branches plan to distribute 2,500 backpacks to families in the Central Florida. Faith Assembly will also be offering an interactive Kids’ Zone, free food, haircuts, school…
Concert promoter Live Nation is celebrating the “return of live concerts” and touring (knocks on wood until knuckles bleed) with discounted tickets to a whole mess of upcoming shows by some big name artists, starting next week. Starting Wednesday, July 28 at noon and going through Sunday, Aug. 1, tickets on select upcoming Live Nation…
Central Florida hospitals are seeing a surge in the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, though they have yet to reach levels seen early on in the pandemic. AdventHealth reports 720 patients currently hospitalized for COVID-19 across its campuses in Central Florida. According to a report from WESH, 94% of these patients are unvaccinated. In Volusia County,…
Gothic and darkwave godfathers Clan of Xymox have announced a rescheduled date for their very ill-starred 2020 Orlando date, and it’s coming up next spring. The Clan, who haven’t played Orlando in well over a decade, were originally set to play Orlando’s the Abbey on March 20, 2020. Orlando Weekly even ran an interview with…
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried caught at least a snapshot worth of time with star quarterback Tom Brady as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrated their Super Bowl victory this week at the White House. Fried tweeted a photo of herself posing Tuesday with the much-taller Brady, adding a tagline about being with the National Football…
National Chicken Tender Day is coming up fast next week, and chicken chain PDQ has announced they are bringing back their Chicken Tender Shake for 24 hours to celebrate the day … because you demanded it? The Chicken Tender Shake takes two crowd favorites — one of PDQ’s signature tenders and a hand-spun vanilla shake — and blends them…
It’s hot out today. Eggs cooking inside their shells hot. Benjamin Sisko in the box on that weird hippie cult planet hot. Mookie throwing a trash can through a pizzeria window hot. Yeah, and it’s hot, too. Temps are sitting pretty in the mid-90s today with forecasts calling for a heat index of 102 degrees.…
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has tested positive for coronavirus. The AG, who was vaccinated earlier this year, shared an update on her condition to Twitter. “Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms and my family is in good health,” she wrote. “As I continue to self-quarantine, I want to encourage Floridians to be vigilant…
On Wednesday, Inter Milan became the second team to withdraw from the four-team exhibition Florida Cup. The Italian club shared that they would not be traveling to the US due to fears around the spread of the coronavirus. “FC Internazionale Milano announce that they will not be travelling to the USA for the Florida Cup…
Gov. Ron DeSantis toured the Tampa Bay region by boat Wednesday and pledged continued support for ongoing efforts to combat a red tide algae bloom killing marine life and impacting the region’s economy. Although DeSantis said his administration is “committed to being in this fight,” environmental groups expressed disappointment that the governor has ignored calls…
Disney is quite possibly the biggest and most successful entertainment company in the world. In the time-honored tradition of our new Gilded Age, that means they are due for some absolutely eye-popping tax breaks. A new report from our local daily newspaper reveals that the company could receive over half a billion dollars in tax…
Jennifer Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda are rereleasing their 2016 collaborative single “Love Make the World Go Round” and proceeds will benefit the OnePulse Foundation, going toward the National Pulse Memorial and the Pulse Museum. J.Lo and Miranda broke the news during a Today Show interview on Tuesday. “It’s the five-year anniversary of the Pulse tragedy,…
Orange County’s COVID-19 positivity rate rose to meet the rest of Central Florida in the last week, hitting 12.3% in the week ending July 15 per the Florida Department of Health. The news of the continued climb in coronavirus cases comes as nearby Brevard County reported a startling outbreak among grade-schoolers and staff at a…
A Florida cyclist suffered severe injuries after falling into a body of water where a 9-foot female alligator was waiting earlier this week. He might have fared a lot worse, however, if a good Samaritan walking his dog nearby hadn’t been so quick on his feet. Charlie Shannon fashioned a tourniquet out of his dog’s…
A divided state appeals court has refused to reconsider a decision that raised questions about the constitutionality of a move last year by Alachua County to require people to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision Friday, refused a request by…
State economists expressed optimism Tuesday that already-rebounding tourism numbers will see a quicker-than-anticipated boost from international travelers as Canada eases COVID-19 border restrictions. While decisions remain from the White House about Canadian travelers entering the United States, members of Florida’s Economic Estimating Conference said Tuesday they anticipate changes will be made to make it more…
Todd Terry: Few have furthered house music as much as this American icon. He defined the genre in its early underground years in the 1980s, and then pushed it into the mainstream stratosphere. Oh, the version of Everything but the Girl’s blockbuster “Missing” that topped all the international charts in the 1990s? That’s Terry’s signature…
Orlando Weekly editors’ selections of the best stuff do to this week. Friday, July 23DJ Diesel (SHAQ!)Shaquille O’Neal told us all he was “outstanding” (in song) as far back as 1993. And as he becomes more of a renaissance man every year, we can’t disagree. EDM promoter Insomniac is bringing the Orlando Magic superstar, actor,…
Dear Dan: My wife got drunk at a vacation house we rented with a bunch of friends and cheated on me with my best friend in the hot tub. They didn’t have sex but they did other things. I wasn’t there, but there were eight other people in the hot tub and the jets were…
Nearly three months after signing a highly contested law cracking down on violent protests, Gov. Ron DeSantis went all in this week in support of people blocking roads in major Florida cities to show solidarity with an explosion of protests in Cuba. In Orlando, hundreds of protesters blocked part of Semoran Boulevard near Curry Ford…
OPENINGS + CLOSINGS: Menagerie Eatery & Bar in South Eola has transformed itself into RusTeak Thornton Park. Owners Brian Buttner and Jonathan Canonaco made the decision after shuttering RusTeak College Park, saying staffing issues led to their decision. Staff from the College Park restaurant will join Menagerie’s staff and move to what they’ve dubbed “RusTeak…
Premieres Wednesday: Behind the Attraction — Dig into a 10-episode series that spills the secrets of your favorite Disney destinations — like The Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, and that Frontierland restroom where you can hook up with the date you met on MouseMingle. (Disney+) Chernobyl 1986 — Russia sends us its first dramatization…
The new release by Vegas Choir Boys is actually a blast from the past, with perhaps more history than activity. VCB were an Orlando band that was on the scene in the early 2000s. Even if you don’t remember them, you’ll likely be familiar with the members’ subsequent pursuits. Guitarist and vocalist Bob Hershberger formed…
Last week, while I was away in Anaheim attending the run-up to Disneyland’s 66th birthday, Disney Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro dropped a bombshell on California’s themed entertainment industry by announcing the relocation of 2,000 employees — including most of the famed Imagineers — to Orlando’s Lake Nona. The implications of this move will reverberate in…
Soon, Orlando will be in the “Court of the Crimson King” once again — or will it be the other way around, and we’ll be courting King Crimson? — when they headline the Frontyard Festival this week. Led by ever-idiosyncratic guitarist and sole remaining founding member Robert Fripp, these legends of prog rock should find…
A former Central Florida police officer with ties to the white nationalist group the Proud Boys was arrested Thursday, July 15, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for charges stemming from the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building. Nathaniel A. Tuck, a former Apopka police officer — along with his father Kevin A. Tuck, who…
A Windermere police officer was arrested for allegedly participating in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Kevin Tuck, 51, resigned from the Central Florida police department ahead of his arrest on Thursday. Tuck was arrested along with his son Nathaniel. Both men were hit with a slew of charges related to entering the…
Days after former Florida Department of Health GIS manager Rebekah Jones received official whistleblower protection for her lack of discretion about the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, she was suspended from Twitter for platform manipulation and spam. Without her main outlet of 400,000 followers, she turned to Instagram to make a big announcement. “I’m running for Matt…
