After 10 years on Sand Lake Road’s Restaurant Row, Antonio’s has closed. Owner Greg Gentile says he closed the restaurant two-weeks ago when his lease expired.

Antonio’s Sand Lake was a third location for the Antonio’s brand, which includes the flagship restaurant and deli, Antonio’s La Fiamma, in Maitland and Cafe d’Antonio in Celebration. Gentile said when he first opened on Sand Lake, the restaurant was very popular with both locals and visitors, drawing big crowds of conventioneers, sometimes doing $80,000 to $90,000 in just three days. Most restaurants would be happy to do that much in a month. “That’s not happening anymore,” he said. With the strained economy, the convention business is not as lucrative these days. Plus, he said, the proliferation of restaurants along Sand Lake Road has increased the competition, especially since the opening of the Dellagio complex.

Instead of continuing what he saw as a losing proposition, Gentile decided to close the restaurant.

The two other locations continue to do fine, he said, and in fact are doing business well above the previous year. Both remaining restaurants are undergoing renovations. The Maitland location, which expanded the upstairs bar area, adding a balcony, will complete an expansion of the popular downstairs deli and market. There will be three dining areas, and the market offerings will be expanded to include fresh produce and other food items to accompany the gourmet imported goods it has sold for over 20 years. The downstairs expansion is expected to be completed in the next two to three weeks.

In Celebration, construction started three weeks ago on converting the side patio into a space that can be both open-air and enclosed for private dining space.

Gentile said he has taken equipment from the Sand Lake Road restaurant and put it in both restaurants. Most of the staff members, too, have been divided between Maitland and Celebration. Gentile said he was able to retain all but three employees from the “20 or so” that were assigned to Restaurant Row.

Word also comes that Efes Turkish Restaurant in Sanford has closed. Efes, on the shore of Lake Monroe, was the undertaking of the original owners of Bosphorous Turkish restaurant on Park Avenue in Winter Park. When I reviewed it in July of last year, I noted that Efes did not have the same quality or offer the same kind of fine experience as Bosphorous.

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