While popular images of Africa tend to focus on poverty and starvation, the Taste of Africa festival is here to disabuse you of those notions. The festival, taking place at MetroWest’s Eagle Nest Park, features a “village market” where attendees can sample tastes from across the second-largest continent, along with cuisine from the Caribbean, part…
Hey, girl. Are you as ready to smash the patriarchy as we are? So is Heidi Kneisl (and a load of other local artists), so she organized this art show. About 20 female artists, including Mary Dodd, Erin Nolan, Johannah O’Donnell and the Naysayer herself, are featured in this exhibition gracing the walls of Lil…
Look, we all miss Roy Orbison. But think you can deal with a visit from his ghost? Cool, because this is going to feel eerily like that. In a weird collision of golden-era nostalgia and future-now technology, this stage production by L.A. company BASE Hologram is bringing the Big O back to life with state-of-the-art…
The Orlando Sentinel will now share its publisher and editor-in-chief with its sister paper, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, after ousting publisher/editor-in-chief Avido Khahaifa. Chicago-based parent company Tribune Publishing announced Monday that the Sun Sentinel’s publisher and general manager Nancy Meyer will become the publisher of both newspapers. Similarly, Sun Sentinel editor-in-chief Julie Anderson will take over…
Recounts wrapping up in small and mid-sized counties are showing few changes to initial results in the races for governor, U.S. Senate and agriculture commissioner. But bigger counties still have until Thursday afternoon to complete the state-mandated recount process. In Leon County, where elections officials completed running more than 140,000 ballots through tabulating machines Tuesday…
Adding to the Hourglass District’s ever-expanding restaurant roster, F&D Woodfired Italian Kitchen is now officially open. Located at 2420 Curry Ford Road, the locally owned F&D opened their doors on Monday, Nov. 12. The new neighborhood addition specializes in woodfire-cooked pizzas, obviously, but they also dish out other classic Italian staples, vegan options, and a brunch…
South Florida-based Phenomenom Nitrogen Ice Cream and Bake Shop is now open and freezin’ in Winter Park. The new location, which opened Oct. 27, is sandwiched between the Michaels and the Petco in the plaza at 501 Orlando Ave. If you’ve never had nitrogen ice cream from Phenomenom, it comes in either a cup or a…
Menagerie Eatery & Bar is now in soft opening in Thornton Park. The new concept is located across from Stubborn Mule in the former Muddy Waters/Mucho’s location, at 101 S. Eola Drive. Menagerie offers up a hefty cocktail menu, as well as a pretty eclectic food menu, centered on small plates and larger-portion “shareables.” Everything…
New Lake Nona eatery Park Pizza & Brewing Co. will open its doors tomorrow. The new spot officially opens Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the Lake Nona Town Center, located at 6941 Lake Nona Blvd. As the name suggests, the main event at Park Pizza & Brewing Co. is their house-brewed beer alongside wood-fired pizza made with fresh…
Recounts are underway in Florida of votes in the races for U.S. Senate, governor and state agriculture commissioner, as if you weren’t aware. The ballot reporting deadline was Saturday. At the moment, term-limited Republican Gov. Rick Scott leads Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson by about 12,500 votes in the U.S. Senate race; former Republican U.S. Rep.…
Let’s attempt to navigate the Sunshine State’s current political hellscape. Among the many races with decisive wins on Election Day last Tuesday, some were too close to immediately call, regardless of a candidate’s concession or declared victory. State law requires a race to be recounted if the margin of votes between two candidates is less than…
Donald Trump Jr. managed to dunk on himself Monday night when he pushed a conspiracy theory about voter fraud in Florida using a 2012 article that debunked said theory. Trump Jr. shared the six-year-old article from NBC 6 with the headline claiming, “Nearly 200,000 Florida Voters May Not Be Citizens.” The president’s son shared the…
When Sir Richard Branson announced details of his new cruise line, Virgin Voyages, he promised a fun cruise line that will buck many industry trends. Now as the Plantation, Florida-based cruise line has announced a number of new details about how Virgin will be different, the cruise industry has been shaken to the core. Four ships…
With more than 700 daily users, the crosswalks at the Kirkman Road and Major Boulevard intersection are some of the most used in all of Central Florida. As part of the I-4 Ultimate project, a new elevated pedestrian pathway at this busy intersection is currently under construction. The new 185-feet long prefabricated pedestrian bridge, which…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND 11Eleven Fest, Broken Cauldron Taproom & Brewery, Nov. 11 It sure was exciting to be checking out music in Parramore again for the second time in a week. Earlier it was Tommy Mot’s new frontiers over at Stonewall. A few days later and a couple blocks down was 11Eleven Fest, the highly…
The League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause Florida filed a federal lawsuit Monday seeking to prevent Gov. Rick Scott from using his official powers to influence ballot counting or the certification of results of his hotly contested race for U.S. Senate. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in Tallahassee, came amid…
Celestial diva Diana Ross – she of Supremes and innumerable solo hits fame – is currently finishing up a Las Vegas residency, but next year she’ll turn her sights on the South for her “Brand New Day” tour. And don’t worry, the City Beautiful will be graced by an appearance. Diana Ross headlines the Walt…
Following Hurricane Michael’s brutal impact on the Florida Panhandle in October, Bay County supervisor of elections Mark Anderson allowed roughly 150 displaced voters to cast ballots by sending them via email, despite an executive order that explicitly prohibited doing so. “You did not go through what we went through,” Anderson told the Tampa Bay Times.…
An auto museum that was just being assembled by Miami developer Michael Dezer at Artegon Marketplace is illegal and has started drawing fines of $200 per day for code violations, according to city officials. The $200 daily fine kicked in Saturday despite hasty efforts by the museum to address some of the violations by dismantling…
If you’re planning to travel at all this Thanksgiving, you can bet your ass there will be overcrowded airports and highways in the Sunshine State. The auto club AAA projects that around 54.3 million Americans will be traveling this year for the holiday, with 2.8 million Floridians adding to that number. To matters worse, AAA…
On Monday, without citing evidence, President Donald Trump called for an end to the election recounts currently underway in Florida and, in the process, alleged that ballots are missing or have been forged. As Trump said via Twitter early this morning: The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis…
Organizers for next year’s Strawberry Festival at Plant City today announced a stacked, all-star lineup of music for the nearly two weeks of the festival next year, and there’s a little something for everyone in there! The lineup as it stands so far includes: Steven Tyler, Willie Nelson, Alabama, Old Dominion, For King and Country,…
Here they go again on their own. Whitesnake is going on a world tour and they’re coming to Orlando. The iconic hair metal band is expected at the Hard Rock Live on April 22, 2019, for their “Flesh & Blood” world tour, where they’ll perform songs from their new album of the same name, along…
Hard rock, comedy and a full orchestra – Weird Al is going all-out on his upcoming tour. His 2019 tour “No Strings Attached” is heading to the Hard Rock on June 10, 2019, where he’ll be playing hits and classics supporting by an entire symphony orchestra and background singers. Tickets go on sale Nov. 16…
Lost in the continuing drama about Tuesday’s elections, the Florida Constitution Revision Commission set a new milestone. The commission, which meets every 20 years and has the unique ability to place proposed constitutional changes directly before voters, saw the passage of seven amendments it put on the ballot. It was the first time a ballot…
One of the oldest rumors in Central Florida tourism is of national amusement park chain Six Flags finally making a significant investment in America’s theme park capital. Over the years, Six Flags has shown that Orlando is on their minds. Decades ago, the company did operate a long-gone wax museum near SeaWorld Orlando. After Boardwalk…
Democrats are holding rallies, demanding that every vote be counted. Republicans are raising the specter of fraud, accusing Democrats of attempting to “steal” elections. Lawsuits are grabbing headlines, and fundraising requests are flooding inboxes. And folks on both sides of the aisle, including candidates, are recruiting attorneys and support staff to monitor activities in Florida’s…
The annual Attractions Expo is the flagship convention for the Orlando-based International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. The conference kicks off today with the trade floor opening tomorrow morning. Last year’s conference saw more than 38,000 attendees and the numbers this year are expected to be even higher. While Disney and Universal typically skip…
Welcome to Orlando Weekly’s “Band of the Week.” Every week, we highlight one of our favorite local musicians. This week, we’re pleased to bring you Steven Head. Rogers KIENE building Steven Head is playing a one-off solo show, “Dream Rhythm,” at Rogers Kiene building on Nov. 12. Just the facts: When did the band form?I’ve been quietly…
In an unusual move, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Sunday publicly criticized Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen for not pursuing an investigation into alleged irregularities in the handling of election ballots in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Bondi’s office released a two-page letter rooted, at least in part, in Gov. Rick Scott’s…
Get your signs ready. University of Central Florida will host ESPN College GameDay next weekend for their upcoming showdown against Cincinnati, marking the first time the program has visited the Knights. Co-host Kirk Herbstreit made the announcement in a video posted to Twitter Sunday morning. “If you look at the slate of games, there’s one game…
As Florida braced for recounts last week in two key races with narrowing margins, some elections supervisors denied progressive organizers access to public records needed to identify voters with provisional ballots, thwarting a last-minute race to resolve repairable ballots before crucial counting deadlines. “The Supervisor of Elections in Nassau turned us away and refused to…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND Tommy Mot’s new vibes at Stonewall, Nov. 8 Even if all this year’s unprecedented movement in the club landscape of Orlando’s music scene hasn’t all panned out quite as promised, the dust has sometimes settled in some interesting places. One such new development that I previewed over the summer when the great…
Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican congressman with a well-documented history of peddling insane conspiracy theories, was mingling in the crowd yesterday outside the Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office, when he completely unloaded on a supporter of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. Of course, suggesting that the state follow through with the legally mandated recount rules was…
The lawsuits piled up and the finger-pointing escalated Friday as Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s slim lead over U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson continued to shrink. While some elections supervisors tallied remaining votes, a recount appeared almost certain in the Senate race, which Scott led by 56,000 votes on election night. The Republican’s advantage dwindled to about…
You may be feeling heavy-hearted or glum for, oh, no particular reason right now – take your pick of political, ecological or celebrity disasters – and wondering what you can do to raise your spirits without raising your cholesterol level or lowering your bank balance. To quote Herman Melville, “Whenever I find myself growing grim…
British heavy metal godfathers Iron Maiden have announced the dates for their 2019 North American “Legacy of the Beast” tour and, miracle of miracles, it kicks off in Florida! Now, Maiden fanatics will have a bit of a drive ahead of them, but this show is their only chance to see Bruce and the boys…
A Ford Motors-themed restaurant chain is opening its first Orlando location next week. Ford’s Garage, a Tampa-based “American comfort food” chain, will open Monday, Nov. 12, at the Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets. The restaurant’s interior is modeled after a 1920s service station, displaying vintage Ford vehicles. Menu items are also designed to give customers the…
As three statewide recounts become a reality, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum fired back at Gov. Rick Scott Thursday for claiming that “rampant fraud” is happening in Palm Beach and Broward counties. In a tweet sent late Thursday, Gillum argued that there are no partisan motives in recounting votes following the midterm elections, as the…
Backstreet’s back, all right. The Backstreet Boys are coming back to Orlando as part of their first and biggest arena tour in 18 years. The band will take the stage at the Amway Center on Aug. 24, 2019. The ’90s pop sensation got its big break in the City Beautiful and returns to promote their…
The food truck park we told you about back in May is poised to soft open next weekend. À La Cart (Facebook | Instagram | Web) will bring five mobile food vendors — Poke Kai (poke), Adao Pastel Gourmet (Brazilian-style empanadas), Steak It Easy (Brazilian-style skewered meats), Vinny & Kory (Vietnamese and Korean fare) and…
As the ballot difference in the U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott continues to erode, with the term-limited governor now holding a .18 percent lead, Nelson’s campaign has filed a lawsuit challenging a state election law. Only about 15,000 votes separate the candidates. Wading farther into the…
If you’ve been waiting to be in the room where it happens, the time has finally come. Tickets to the Broadway smash hit Hamilton go on sale at 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 16, on the Dr. Phillips Center website. Seats range from $76.50 to $199.50, or $429.50 for VIP orchestra seating. The Tony Award-winning musical follows…
Florida and Georgia will have until the end of January to file new arguments in the legal fight over water use impacting the Apalachicola River system, a special master said this week. Paul J. Kelly, a senior judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who is serving as special master, set a Jan.…
In an hour-long hearing characterized by sometimes-intense exchanges, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday about reopening the application process for three upcoming vacancies on the court. The League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause are asking the Supreme Court to order a nominating commission to extend an application deadline and halt the…
Two decades after voters approved a constitutional amendment that called for a “high quality” system of public schools, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday took up a legal battle about whether the state has properly carried out voters’ wishes. An attorney for the group Citizens for Strong Schools asked the Supreme Court to overturn a…
Gov. Rick Scott lashed out Thursday night at elections supervisors in Broward and Palm Beach counties as “incompetent” and part of an effort to “thwart the will of the people,” as the margin of his apparent U.S. Senate victory has narrowed and likely will require a recount. Scott’s comments came as his campaign and the…
Henry Moso, arguably the city’s most creative sushi chef, will soon bring his high-end sushi game to the high-end streets of Dr. Phillips. Moso will open a second Kabooki Sushi this coming February in a recently vacated restaurant space off Turkey Lake Road. We’re not allowed to reveal the exact location quite yet, but readers…
One thing we can all agree on: Every vote deserves to be counted. If a citizen has gone to the trouble to cast a ballot, that ballot must be part of the official tally. Now, as Florida braces for not one, not two, but three recounts, massive efforts are being made to gather and deliver…
Nikki Fried, Florida’s Democratic candidate for agriculture commissioner, now has an extremely narrow lead over Republican Rep. Matt Caldwell. At the start of Thursday, Fried trailed by nearly 4,000 votes, but now the Fort Lauderdale attorney and lobbyist has pulled ahead of Caldwell by just 583 votes, according to the Division of Elections. BREAKING: We're…
The race for Florida’s governor intensified on Thursday as the margin between Republican nominee Ron DeSantis and his democratic opponent Andrew Gillum sank below half a percentage point to 0.47%, launching the race into an automatic recount. In a matter of seconds, Florida’s Division of Elections website updated its tally for three suspenseful statewide races…
Florida’s U.S. Senate and Agriculture Commissioner races are going into automatic recounts, meaning those who cast a provisional ballot on Nov. 6 have until 5 p.m. Thursday to cure their ballot with county officials. As in: Those who cast a provisional ballot, whether you did so because you forgot your identification or showed up at…
Wyndham Grand Hotels wants guests to spend less time their cell phones and enjoy their vacations more by offering incentives for not using their phones. Through Nov. 12, the hotel brand is implementing non-mandatory phone-free zones at pools and restaurants in five locations, including Wyndham Grand Orlando Bonnet Creek, Wyndham Grand Clearwater Beach and locations…
After U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson called for a recount on Wednesday following the Nov. 6 general election, Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s lead is now just 0.26 percent in the race to unseat the incumbent Democrat – one-hundredth of a point away from triggering a manual recount, or recount by hand. According to the Florida Division…
Florida’s 2018 midterm elections are not over. The margin between Ron DeSantis, the acknowledged winner of the Governor’s mansion Tuesday night, and Andrew Gillum continues to narrow as the recount effort already underway in the U.S. Senate race closes in to Democrats’ benefit. The slim margin of 0.32 percent between Rick Scott and Bill Nelson…
In the midst of a historic midterm election, Central Floridians left voting stickers on the grave of Julius “July” Perry, an African American man who was shot and lynched by a white mob in Orlando after encouraging Ocoee’s black residents to vote on Election Day in 1920. Perry is buried in the old black section of…
A governor’s race. A U.S. Senate race. Trump. The 2018 midterm elections in Florida pretty much had everything a political junkie could want. Here are some of the numbers from Tuesday’s unofficial results: 62.13: The percentage of voters who went to the polls. For those of you keeping score at home, that equates to 8.25…
Susie Wiles, a longtime political strategist who chaired Republican Ron DeSantis’ successful gubernatorial campaign, will oversee his transition into the top statewide office. Wiles, who also managed Gov. Rick Scott’s successful 2010 campaign and played a key role in 2016 for President Donald Trump in Florida, will be the DeSantis transition team’s executive director. DeSantis’…
With the threat of financial investigations from House Democrats and a possible indictment of his own son looming on the horizon, President Donald Trump made a desperate act of survival yesterday when he asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down. Sessions, who recused himself from the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the…
First-time Democratic candidate Anna Vishkaee Eskamani made history Tuesday night as the first Iranian American to be elected to the Florida House by flipping a Republican-held Orlando seat against an opponent who labeled her vulgar for cursing out the patriarchy and transphobia. But now the 28-year-old progressive is headed to Tallahassee, where both chambers of the Florida…
Pointe Orlando, the convention-goer’s mall of choice, will add a new restaurant to its lineup soon. Restaurateur Karim El Sherif will bring Lotus Asia House to Pointe Orlando, scheduled to open in early 2019. The Pan-Asian concept restaurant will move into the space formerly occupied by RA Sushi, and will feature a menu comprising Chinese, Thai and…
Ron DeSantis’ narrow win in Tuesday’s election for governor will bring an unprecedented expansion of conservative Republican power in Tallahassee. Democrats haven’t won a governor’s race since 1994. They haven’t controlled the state House or Senate since the mid-1990s. They lost their last Cabinet member in 2010. Now, with DeSantis’ election, that conservative Republican influence…
Republican Jimmy Patronis, who was appointed state chief financial officer last year by Gov. Rick Scott, bested Democratic former state Sen. Jeremy Ring in a bid for re-election Tuesday night. According to the state Division of Elections, the race was called around 11 p.m., as Patronis, the only incumbent on the statewide ballot, had received…
Cheers! Sipping on a walk-around beer is now a reality in Mount Dora. Mount Dora City Council passed an open container ordinance on Tuesday 4-3. The new ordinance allows outdoor consumption of beer, cocktails and other alcoholic beverages all week from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m within downtown’s “entertainment district,” which runs from State Road…
Republican Ashley Moody will become the state’s next attorney general, after defeating Democratic state Rep. Sean Shaw in Tuesday’s election. It was an easy win for Moody, a former Hillsborough County Circuit judge, as she bested Shaw by more than 500,000 votes. According to a report from the TC Palm, by 10 p.m. Tuesday, the…
Sarah Fortney, a 34-year veteran of the classroom, became the state’s first openly gay member of a school district last night as she bested Publix manager Scott Jones for the Polk County School Board’s District 3 seat. With all precincts reporting, Polk County elections reports that Fortney won 61 percent of the vote, a total…
The razor-thin victory by Republican Rep. Matt Caldwell in the race for Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner could be up for a manual recount. Caldwell leads against Democratic challenger and medical marijuana lobbyist Nikki Fried by a 0.16 percent margin, which equates to 12,521 votes. Out of more than 8 million votes cast, Caldwell received 4,008,205 votes, while…
Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is calling for a recount of his race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott hours after Scott declared himself the winner of the Senate seat Tuesday night. The latest numbers from the Florida Division of Elections show Scott with 4,081,179 votes, or 50.19 percent of the total vote, while Nelson has 4,050,940 votes,…
Felons will get voting rights automatically restored after serving their sentences, vaping in workplaces will be illegal and greyhound racing will be banned in Florida under a series of constitutional amendments approved Tuesday. In all, voters were headed toward passing 11 of the 12 amendments on the ballot. As of 9:45 p.m., the only amendment…
OPENINGS Sushi Pop will open its Winter Park restaurant at 115 E. Lyman Ave. at the end of this month or in early December. Chef-owner Chau Trinh says Sushi Pop will be open seven days a week, but the restaurant will transform into Chauhaus – a pop-up of sorts serving pho, rice bowls and noodle…
Someone just became Florida’s new governor, though we don’t know who: Because Orlando Weekly goes to press Mondays and hits stands on Wednesdays, as we write this we have no idea whether Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum or Republican nominee Ron DeSantis won the governor’s race in Tuesday’s general election, or the outcome of any other…
Every cloud has a silver lining
Anything you can brew she can brew better
In Disney theme park parlance, “Phase 2” refers to a major element of an ambitious overall project that is postponed from the original opening, but promised to appear at a later date. More often than not, such second acts are either significantly scaled back (see Sunset Boulevard at Hollywood Studios, which was supposed to include…
THIS WEEK: The Girl in the Spider’s Web In the immortal words of Drunk Uncle, “Girl with a dragon tattoo? Not in my house!” That was the general reaction to the 2011 English-language film version of Dragon, which couldn’t help but feel superfluous after three European-made adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s written oeuvre. For some reason,…
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about myself and my sexuality and my romantic self. I can log on and easily find someone to fuck. I’m a bear-built top guy. There are ladies in my life who choose to share their beds with me. I can find subs to tie up and…
Meet Talos! This 3-year-old cutie (A404116) arrived at Orange County Animal Services on Sept. 24 because his owners were no longer able to care for him. Our staff is shocked that this handsome, easy-going dog has not yet been adopted. Talos would love to find a home in time for holidays! He’s sure to bring…
Nathan Gray Gray of Boy Sets Fire and Jack O’Shae of Bayside present a night of intimate solo sets, stripped of their sturm und drang. 9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7, at Will’s Pub, $10 Timothy Eerie Austin-via-Orlando psych-rock mover Eerie plays a homecoming show as part of a tour of the South with Sonic Graffiti and…
