Soco Restaurant 629 E. Central Blvd., Orlando After 11 years of serving its contemporary brand of Southern fare, Soco closed permanently in late May. The concept by real estate developer Craig Ustler and chef Greg Richie matched the lifespan of the space’s predecessor, Hue. In food and dining critic Faiyaz Kara’s 2015 review, he said the restaurant’s “imaginative, sometimes fanciful, takes on classic Southern staples are of the sort one would see on East Bay Street in Charleston, South Carolina, not East Central Boulevard in Orlando.” Credit: courtesy image via Instagram
After 11 years of serving its contemporary brand of Southern fare, Soco will close after brunch service this Sunday. The concept by real estate developer Craig Ustler and chef Greg Richie matched the lifespan of the space’s predecessor, Hue.

In my review from January 2015, I said Soco’s “imaginative, sometimes fanciful, takes on classic Southern staples are of the sort one would see on East Bay Street in Charleston, South Carolina, not East Central Boulevard in Orlando.”

Ustler said the restaurant had reached its lifespan and that it was time to do something new, but what that is exactly is still being worked out.

“We are going to use the summer to explore our options and hopefully bring something exciting to the space this fall,” Ustler says. But it won’t involve Richie who, Ustler says, was “a great chef and partner, but was specific to Soco.”

After selling the ground-floor commercial space at Thornton Park Central to Verax in February 2022, Ustler says he secured a long-term lease for the restaurant space and plans on keeping it to explore options moving forward.

“Soco had a great run for 11 years and we are proud of it,” says Ustler. “But it’s time to do something different.”

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This article appears in May 21-27, 2025.

Orlando restaurant critic. Orlando Weekly restaurant critic since 2006.