Lombardi’s Seafood, one of the area’s premier fishmongers, is beefing up its cafe offerings with the hiring of two high-profile chefs: Austin Boyd and Yoshi Pintar.

Boyd was most recently part of Jason and Sue Chin’s Good Salt Restaurant Group (Osprey, Seito Sushi, Reyes) and left after a recent restructuring. Pintar is known by many in the area as Chef Yoshi.

Pintar, who has worked at JW Marriott and Four Seasons, started at the Fairbanks Avenue seafood shop Friday rolling sushi and preparing fresh poke bowls. Boyd will begin developing items for the cafe menu as well as food kits and prepared dishes customers can take home to make or reheat.

Owner Mike Lombardi said by phone Friday that he had known both chefs for a long time and their availability worked for his longterm plans for the 50-year-old business.

“Austin and I have been talking for a while,” he said. “I have been trying to find the right person that can really bring fresh ideas to not only the cafe but is also interested in making items for retail so that we can help our customers have a better experience cooking seafood at home.”

Lombardi said he has no plans to become a fine dining restaurant, or even an evening dinner destination. “We’re working on a late afternoon, happy hour kind of thing,” he said, eventually featuring a raw bar and tapas menu.

Boyd will also be introducing nonseafood items, including a house burger and a Nashville hot chicken sandwich.

Lombardi said he’s bringing in more refrigeration units to showcase the chefs’ items. He’ll also be featuring recipe cards and purchasing guidance for seafood-cooking novices.

Lombardi's Seafood moved to its current location at 1888 W. Fairbanks Ave. in Winter Park five years ago from its original location near the corner of U.S. Highway 17-92 and Orange Avenue. It has been in operation since 1961.

Food insecurity has been a local problem for a long time, and it’s getting worse as the pandemic rages on. Thousands of Central Floridians remain furloughed – many from jobs that were low-paying to begin with – and are struggling to pay bills, rent and buy food. To get a gut-punching idea of the situation, read Gabrielle Russon’s article in the Orlando Sentinel about a weekly food giveaway for people out of work with a line of cars that stretches two miles.

Breadlines have become motorized. And instead of the haggard faces of downtrodden men seen in Depression-era photographs, these lines are occupied by your neighbors.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, which has been fighting the hunger fight for years, notes that the area is expecting a 49 percent increase in the number of people who will face food insecurity this year. One in six Central Floridians.

So Second Harvest has launched a monthlong campaign to Stock the Shelves as part of a national initiative called Hunger Action Month. The organization is encouraging those of us fortunate to have enough to take action to help others. This may include donating 30 nonperishable food items – one for every day of September; donating $30 for 30 days of hunger (or more if you’re able); donating half of your buy-one-get-one food purchase; or signing up to volunteer – those two-mile-long food lines don’t staff themselves.

You can learn more – and start getting involved – at FeedHopeNow. You’ll also find others ways to help at Second Harvest’s Facebook page.

I regret that I’m unable to show you a photo of the onion naan I got with my takeout order from Gateway to India, the popular Longwood restaurant. But once I had the order in my car, I reached in the bag and found the foil-wrapped naan and figured I would just have a nibble to sustain me on the ride home.

But one nibble lead to another, each savoring the mild onions, bits of cilantro and peppery powder, and soon it was all gone. It wasn’t that I was so hungry I couldn’t wait, the naan was just too good to stop. And I can only be grateful that I didn’t try to sneak a taste of the curry dishes because my car would have needed to be hosed out by the time I got home. The food here really is quite good.

Luma on Park, one of the area’s most critically acclaimed restaurants, has announced that it will be closing after 15 years at the corner of Park and New England Avenues in Winter Park. A posting on the restaurant’s Facebook page said that Park Lights Hospitality, which owns the Luma brand, was “unable to come to terms on a reasonable rent structure to continue operating in our current location.”

“It’s a sad time for all of us,” said Tim Noelke, the longtime manager and a principal of Park Lights. Noelke, reached by phone Wednesday morning, said the group had “been negotiating for some time now” with the building’s landlord, Battaglia Group. Noelke said that negotiations began before the pandemic-forced shutdown.