I hope you’ll join me Thursday night at the historic Dubsdread for the 11th annual Feed the Need, benefitting the Christian Service Center.  The evening will feature food, drink, entertainment, and the chance to pick up some good bargains in both the live and silent auctions. The event will be emceed by Scott Maxwell, who, according to a press release, writes a column for a local newspaper.

Taproom at Dubsdread owner Steve Gunter started Feed the Need with Sandra Lavender in 2001 as a response to do something for people who suddenly found themselves needing assistance following a downturn in the economy after the 9/11 attacks. Gunter says they chose the food pantry of the Christian Service Center specifically because it deals with people suffering a temporary setback. In the past 11 years, the one-night event has raised nearly half a million dollars.

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Steve Gunter, owner of Tap Room at Dubsdread and Dubsdread Catering, announced this morning that his team has been selected by the City of Apopka to manage the troubled Highland Manor property on an interim basis.

Highland Manor, also remembered by longtime Central Floridians as Townsend’s Plantation, was closed after the city evicted the current owners for nonpayment of rent. As reported yesterday in the Orlando Sentinel, Apopka police arrested Richard Wilhelm Thursday on charges that he schemed to defraud customers by continuing to collect deposits for events at the property after he had received notices of the impending eviction. According to the article, the people who paid the deposits, mostly brides who planned to have weddings and receptions there, likely will not get that money back.

But Gunter told me this morning that the city’s deal with him, which gives him the facilities rent free, will allow him to honor the contracts without requiring an additional deposit. He also stressed that although the city wants another restaurant to operate in the Highland Manor space, he will not be the one to operate it. His Tap Room at Dubsdread is a popular and critically acclaimed restaurant, but he says the Apopka property has limitations that would hinder a duplicate success — mainly that people approaching the property from the south cannot make a left turn to reach it.

So Dubsdread Catering will handle the weddings for those currently booked and others who wish to hold their receptions there in the future. Dubsdread, another popular wedding and reception location, is booked solid for the year and, according to Gunter, has turned away 100 requests.

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For years I’ve been recommending The Tap Room at Dubsdread for its Tap Room burger, one of the best burgers in town for my money. But of course the Tap Room has always offered more substantial fare (if you don’t already consider a huge burger to be substantial fare).

The menu just got a little more substantial with a newly added line of hand-cut steaks, as well as a few other items. But I was most interested in the steaks. We have a number of high-end steakhouses in the area, and lord knows we have plenty of low-end ones, too. But that middle ground, the steakhouse that offers good quality meat without pricing it like the steers have been hand-massaged with sake, those are harder to come by. But that’s how I’d classify the steaks at Tap Room. Based on the ribeye steak I had there recently, I’d say these are upper crust steaks for a very fair price: $19.95 for the ribeye, which also included a generous portion of sauteed spinach and a healthy mound of mashed potatoes. No, it’s not the least expensive item on the menu, but we’re definitely talking value.

The steak was cooked nicely, maybe just a tad beyond the way I think a medium-rare steak should be, but still sufficiently red in the center. The meat had that good mix of tenderness with a coarser steaky texture. That’s the only way I know to describe it. The mashed potatoes were real — with the skins blended in to prove it — and were real creamy, too. I was impressed with spinach, too. It hadn’t been cooked until it was melting. The leaves were still a bright green and were dressed with butter and just enough garlic, including a sliver or two as garnish.

I started the meal with another new menu item, a caprese salad of thickly sliced tomatoes layered with milky white slices of fresh mozzarella. They were garnished with shreds of fresh basil and plenty of cracked black pepper. Wonderful flavors all.

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