The numbers are in for this year's Taste! Central Florida, help Sept. 8 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. Presented by Uncorked Gourmet, the eventraised $252,031 to support the childhood feeding programs and services of Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida and Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.

Technically its 29th year, Taste! Central Florida was previously part of the national Taste of the Nation. The organizers decided to go independent last year, which means that all of the monies raised stay local.

Nearly 2000 people attended this year's Taste!, which had competition from other charity events. Nevertheless, they sipped cocktails, craft brews and wines from 24 beverage vendors and sampled the food of more than 50 of the area's top chefs and restaurants.

Among them were:

The former Mitchell's Fish Market space in Winter Park Village is finally getting a new tenant, the first non-seafooder in a very long time.

Bar Louie, the Texas based franchise chain, will add another to its approximately 135 locations across the country. There are currently three in Orlando.

Mitchell's Fish Market closed in November after nearly seven and a half years in the large corner space across from the entertainment and shopping complex's movie theaters. Before Mitchell's, it was a place called Beluga's, which was a precursor to present day's Big Fin Seafood Kitchen on Sand Lake Road; Blackfin; and Kovar's, which opened with the development in 2000.

Bar Louie refers to itself as "an urban bar made famous for our signature martinis, cocktails and dynamic beer selection." It serves food, too, but has become less known for being a place to eat than as a watering hole. An urban watering hole, if you insist.

The Winter Park Village BL is not expected to start shaking its martinis until sometime in the first quarter of 2019.

A new restaurant opened Friday in the former Cafe Madrid space. It's called Cafe Madrid Deli & Bakery.

The deli and bakery should be a clue that it's not the old Cafe Madrid, which closed in January after a 28 year run. (It closed a week after I reviewed it, but I swear it was a positive review.)

The old CM was a full service restaurant, the new one is a counter service. Also, "We don't do rice and beans," said owner Edgar Ramirez. Instead, "we have pastries, sandwiches and tapas with wine and beer."

Cafe Madrid Deli & Bakery is at 4502 Curry Ford Road, Orlando.

One of the best things about Visit Orlando's Magical Dining Month -- at least it was when it was first instituted -- is that it allows you to experience a restaurant that perhaps might be beyond your financial comfort zone. At some of the featured restaurants, you couldn't even afford an appetizer from the regular menu let alone a full three-course meal.

Magical Dining Month made those restaurants -- Ruth's Chris, Eddie V's and Morton's among them -- approachable. The smart restaurants knew that it was an opportunity to woo new customers, even if it was just for special occasion dining, by showcasing the best of their regular menus on the specially priced three-course Magical menu

Then some restaurants started changing what they would offer. In many cases today, the MagDinMo menu doesn't feature any items from the regular menu. What's the point of that? Others make subtle changes, such as offering smaller portions of changing the ingredients used in a dish.

When I put together my "How to Do Magical Dining Month" video last year, which emphasizes comparing the MagDinMo menu to the restaurant's regular menu, found on most of their websites, I dinged deep blu seafood grille for changing the makeup of its Bouillabaisse (the regular menu had lobster, the Magical menu did not). I had previously dinged it for its inability to use capital letters and misspellings.

So I made a point of checking deep blu's Magical menu this year, and boy howdy, is it a bargain. At least on paper -- the three entrees on the MagDinMo menu range from $35 to $42. And since the three course special menu is $35, there's no need to pull out a calculator.