• Brunch on the Avenue will take place March 28 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Gaston Edwards Park, which makes one wonder if the organizers know what brunch is, or an avenue, for that matter. It will feature a four-course “breakfast for dinner” menu served at a long and winding table along the Lake Ivanhoe park’s path. So, Brunch on the Path, maybe? Bottomless Bloodies and Mimosas. Cost is $100 per person or $150 for two. Tickets at ivanhoevillage.org.
• March 28 is also the date for the fourth annual Beard in Baldwin, a walkabout tasting event benefitting the James Beard Foundation’s scholarship fund and it actually does take place on an avenue. Or street, to be exact. Forty eight local restaurants and 18 beverage vendors will be on hand. Organizers have also invited three Chicago chefs, which is so Beard-like. Event is from 7 to 10 p.m. and tickets are $110 for general admission. Tickets here.
• Date has been set for the 31st Taste! Central Florida. It will be Saturday, Aug. 22. So pencil that in if you’re a plan-ahead type person.
• Got an email from 1921 Mount Dora with Fall Wine Dinner in the subject line, so I was thinking it was another plan-ahead thing. But the notice said the five-course dinner featuring Italian wines will be April 3, so let's call it a spring wine dinner. It will not be held on a street or an avenue but rather inside the lovely restaurant. Tickets are $130.

What is it about the space at 4979 New Broad St. in Baldwin Park that prevents its occupants from being successful? Or should the space be blamed?

First there was Lago, an Italian restaurant whose owner seemed to be repelled by by his customers. It lasted from 2009 to 2012. Manny’s Original Chophouse moved in in 2018 and out in 2019.

Now it’s home to Galeria, with a confusing mishmash of styles, uneven food preparation and service that is spotty at best.

In this episode of Tasting Table, in collaboration with WFTV-Channel 9 and icFlorida, we visit Toledo, the Spanish style restaurant on the top floor of the Gran Torino Tower at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort. For more Tasting TAble videos, download the WFTV Now app for Apple TV, Roku and other streaming devices. 

I guess the name Smoke & Donuts is now something of a double entendre. It started – and continues to operate – as a food truck, specializing in barbecued smoked meats and, as the name promises, donuts.

But now owner Ian Russell is offering his food truck menu in a non-wheeled environment in partnership with a Mills 50 business called Belicoso Cigars & Cafe. Hence the double meaning of smoke. We won’t get into any Freudian allusions that might arise from cigars and donut holes – sometimes a donut is just a donut. And sometimes it very much is not, but I’ll come back to that.