Two weeks after Rich Alfonso unexpectedly handed ownership of College Park’s O-Town Pizza & Wing Co. (formerly known as the Original Alfonso’s Pizza and Sports Bar) over to property owner Curtis Hodges, it has closed. Hodges had a hard time finding someone to run the place, but is confident he’ll find a new tenant.
Coffee news: Downtown Credo will open a second coffee shop next year in Florida Hospital’s Health Village, next to the SunRail station. And Vespr Craft Coffee and Allures, the specialty coffeehouse out by UCF, will open a counter on the fifth floor of the historic Yowell-Duckworth Building on Orange Avenue in the late summer. The café will be a part of Catalyst, a collaborative work space.
If reading about Trevi’s truffled treats tickled your umami senses, you might want to consider dropping $100 at the Ravenous Pig’s Summer Truffle Wine Dinner. You’ll sample the “black diamonds” throughout a five-course meal of rabbit, pheasant, wild boar, rib-eye and more, all paired with wine selected by a master sommelier. (There are only 214 of those in the world, you know.) Call 407-628-2333 for reservations.
Local Roots’ June Farm Tour will see folks hop on the Tampa Bay Brew Bus and head off to three area farms – Dragon Farm and Ensey’s Tropical Fruit in Merritt Island, as well as Wild Ocean Seafood in Titusville. Riders will get their fill of craft beer, then enjoy lunch and a cooking class at Wild Ocean. The bus leaves East End Market Saturday, June 28, at 11 a.m. Cost is $65 per person.
Closings to announce: Santos Brazilian Restaurant & Churrascaria (in the once-gorgeous Flavours of India space on South Kirkman Road) has closed. After more than 15 years in business, Memories of India in the Turkey Lake Plaza has also closed. (Their Lake Mary location remains open, however.)
BRIEFLY:
Dexter’s has opened an outpost in Windermere in the Grove at Isleworth development … Good news for those to the north and the west: Barbecue king John Rivers is expanding his empire to Tallahassee and Tampa.
