FIRST ON SJO — There’s more information coming in about the restaurant planned for the former Harvey’s Bistro space in downtown Orlando that I told you about in a previous article.
The name will be Dovecote, a French word meaning pigeon house, and it will be a brasserie, according to James Petrakis. “Not a super classic brasserie,” he told me Monday, “but some semblance. Certainly Balthazar-esque,” he added, referring to a popular brasserie in Manhattan. The menu will deifinitly lean French, he said. Squab, perhaps? Petrakis and his wife, Julie, pictured at left, owners of Ravenous Pig and other restaurants, are partnering with chef Clay Miller and cocktail entrepreneur Gene Zimmerman in the new venture.
Drew White, who designed Zimmerman’s downtown bar, The Courtesy, will take on the task of redesigning the space on the ground floor of the Bank of America building. No small feat that — the original design of a cold, severe bank lobby has never fully been overcome in the other restaurants that have occupied the address. Besides Harvey’s Bistro, 390 N. Orange Avenue has also been home to Terrace 390 most recently. The first restaurant to occupy the space was Bakerstreet. Gomez Construction will handle the buildout. Petrakis said the partners have been getting a lot of support from the owners and managers of the building.
