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.Related Stories
This article appears in Elección 2020.
