OPENINGS: Are you ready for black sesame donuts and cheese mousse tea? Dochi, specializing in those soft-and-chewy Japanese rice flour donuts, has opened on the second floor of East End Market. They're currently serving on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., though the hours will likely expand. Best of all, RoyalTea will operate their second area tea shop from the same space at the end of the month. I see lines forming on stairs in East End's future ... City Works Eatery & Pour House, an upscale sports bar with more than 90 local and global varieties of beer on tap, has opened in Disney Springs ... Sweet Shiba, a shibu inu-themed dessert cafe, has opened in the old J-Petal space on International Drive and Oak Ridge Road near the outlets. Like J-Petal, Sweet Shiba serves Japanese-style crepes as well as waffles, cheese teas, fruit teas, and savory items like takoyaki, grilled cold noodles and jian bing (savory crepes). Much snack! So doge! ... Foxtail Coffee's first shipping container cafe will open at The Yard at Ivanhoe in late spring/early summer ... Agave Azul Cocina Mexicana will move into the space recently vacated by Ari Hibachi & Sushi on South Semoran near the airport ... Chicken joint PDQ will open in SoDo near the Lucky's Corner that once had a Lucky's Market ... BoVine Steakhouse, ever so slowly renovating the old Park Plaza Gardens space on Winter Park's Park Avenue, is now hiring for all front- and back-of-house positions ahead of their anticipated March opening.
CLOSINGS: Wa Sushi in Casselberry will close Feb. 29 because of an untenable drainage system in the Seminola Lake Center plaza. The owners are currently in search of a new home and we hope they find one soon ... Ari Hibachi & Sushi, next to Bonchon on Semoran Boulevard near the airport, has shuttered.
NEWS/EVENTS: Hunger Street Tacos has launched a new menu that includes chicken mole tacos, papas aplastadas (crushed potatoes) and Mexican street quesadillas employing tortillas fashioned from nixtamalized landrace Oaxacan corn and Oaxacan cheese ... The 12th annual Downtown Food & Wine Fest goes from noon to 7 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday at Lake Eola. More than 30 restaurants will participate and 50-plus wines will be offered. Admission is $15 for one day; $25 for both days; $20 more for the wine lanyard. A VIP package is $115 or $200 for both days ... The Wine Barn celebrates its "grand reopening" March 1 with a tasting from 1-8 p.m. Admission is $25; VIP ($50) gets you in an hour earlier ... Cali-based vegan outfit Vuture Food (offering "plant-based junk food") will stage a one-night-only pop-up March 15 at Broken Strings Brewery from 2-7 p.m.
– This story appears in the Feb. 19, 2020, print issue of Orlando Weekly. Find out the latest dining news every Friday morning with our weekly Food + Drink newsletter.
