Another Pickle in the barrel
Downtown hardly needs another sandwich shop, but there is a captive-audience prosperity that is fueling outlets like Pickles Original N.Y. Deli, strategically located inside the Orange County Administration Building. Pass clients waiting for marriage licenses and building permits on the first floor to enter the tiny cafe with ample indoor and outdoor seating. Two pickle…
Potent stuff
Lee & Rick’s is an experience; it’s an event, not to mention a tradition. You go with lots of people. You dress so it doesn’t matter if you drop a Tabasco-laden raw oyster down your shirt. You eat way more than you expect to, and it’s all good — even when you do things that…
Eyes on the pies
It would be easy for passersby to miss Park Ave. Pizza & Italian Restaurant, as its facade is a simple storefront amid all the pomp of Winter Park. Don’t expect much better on the inside of this modest and very casual eatery. There are about five tables covered in plastic tablecloths, and the dining space…
Light source
At one time it was home to corporate pizzas, as bland and predictable as the building they were made in. Today the shell of this former Pizza Hut still stands, but inside you will no longer find God-awful garlic bread served by minimum-wage slaves. Instead, at Greek Flame Taverna you’ll find warm homemade pitas and…
Lights are on in Harriet’s Kitchen
Unless you’re part of Orlando’s “macrobiotic community,” you might never have heard of Harriet McNear and Harriet’s Kitchen. The whole-foods cooking school has been holding cooking classes and workshops in Winter Park for 15 years, teaching people about the macrobiotic diet, using no cheese, eggs or meat but based mostly on veggies, fruits and nuts.…
Faith in diversity
On the Orlando cultural calendar, the phrase “first annual” usually and unfortunately translates into “never to be repeated.” But when the Central Florida Jewish Film Festival enters its sophomore year Sunday and Monday, Oct. 29 and 30, at Maitland’s Enzian Theater, its virtues won’t be limited to rule-defying survival. The sequel to last October’s inaugural…
Ring of hope
Movie: Girlfight
One’s his limit
Movie: The Legend of Drunken Master
Powder-puff piece
Movie: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Honest reward
Movie: Pay It Forward
Ring of hope
Movie: Girlfight
One’s his limit
Movie: The Legend of Drunken Master
Powder-puff piece
Movie: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Honest reward
Movie: Pay It Forward
Memory bytes
I don’t remember anything. I don’t have to. Historically, Orlando has no real history. A winding series of orange trees, gay mice, real estate and rave regulations may distract the myopia long enough to roll an eye, but when it comes down to it, the City Beautiful is only about as old as Delta Burke…
Strike one for O-Town
When ABC Television announced in August that it was ordering 13 new episodes of “Making the Band,” fans of the Orlando-based reality series were thrilled. Media watchers were puzzled. The reality series — which follows the machinations behind the Lou Pearlman boy band O-Town — performed miserably this past summer. Rarely pulling anything higher than…
Shooting stance
The local branch of the NAACP and County Commissioner Homer Hartage have asked Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary for information into the nine shootings by sheriff’s officials this year. In separate letters, Hartage and Thomas Alston, executive director of the Orange County branch of the NAACP, have asked Beary for his department’s policy regarding handgun…
Barred from help?
As early as Aug. 10, Michael Williams knew his breathing wasn’t what it should be. He wheezed constantly, took frequent hits from an inhaler and suffered through hourlong coughing fits. But as an inmate housed in the Orange County Jail, there wasn’t much he could do about his condition. “Could you please call up here…
Scaring up some competition
As Universal Studios Florida’s “Halloween Horror Nights” thrive, you can’t help but feel kind of sorry for the Walt Disney Co. Due to the company’s aggressively family-friendly image, the Mouse really isn’t allowed to cash in on the public’s increasing hunger for ghoulish thrills and chills. At least not in an obvious fashion. Mind you,…
Closed-door democracy
The man speaking at the Sept. 25 Orlando City Council meeting had a message as old as the American Revolution. When it comes to spending tax money, he said, maybe it’d be a good idea to let citizens have a say before government actually spent it. Hearing from constituents seems like an idea every public…
