Dominic Rice, a graduate of Orlando Culinary Academy currently serving as a sous chef at Narcissa in the Standard hotel in New York, has been named the chef for a restaurant going into the former Matilda’s space on Park Avenue in Winter Park, according to sources.
Rice is not new to Park Avenue. He also worked at Luma on Park as executive sous chef before going to new york and joining the staff at the estimable Jean-George. A graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in sociology, Rice has also worked at the Tipsy Parson in Chelsea and Resto in Manhattan.
Three restaurants will occupy the space on the corner of Park Avenue and Canton Avenue that has been home to numerous restaurants in the last couple of decades, many of them only briefly. The restaurants are being developed by Soho Hospitality Group in Tampa and will include a farm-to-table concept and an oyster bar. The names of the restaurants have not yet been revealed even though a spokesman for the group said that it expects to have them open in the next 30 days.
Neither Rice nor Soho’s management have confirmed his hiring. Stand by.
