Maxine’s on Shine is throwing an 80th birthday party for executive chef George Vogelbacher on Tuesday, April 27, from 5 to 8 p.m. The celebration is open to the public and you can register your interest to attend at the event’s Facebook page.
Vogelbacher joined the neighborhood boîte almost exactly seven years ago, in April of 2014, and was named its executive chef a couple of months later. But he has a long history of cooking in Central Florida restaurants as chef and sometimes owner. Most notably, he and his wife operated Le Cordon Bleu, a French restaurant that opened in 1968 in the building where Ravenous Pig now resides; Harper’s Tavern was on the other side of the building. The restaurant was a popular special occasion destination for many locals until fire destroyed it in the summer of 1996.
The Vogelbachers took over Jordan’s Grove, a fine dining restaurant that was in a former house on the grounds of the Enzian Theater, and renamed it Nicole St. Pierre after their two children. They eventually sold the restaurant – it became Chef Arthur’s Nicole St. Pierre but didn’t last long and the structure was demolished.
After several years of catering, Vogelbacher teamed up in 2009 with a group planning to open what would become Winter Park Fish Co. After four years, Vogelbacher returned from a family vacation and was told that the restaurant was making payroll cuts and that he was no longer employed.
A short time later he was invited by Maxine and Kirt Earhart to join their funky neighborhood restaurant.
If you remember some of Vogelbacher’s past projects, stop by Tuesday and wish him a happy birthday. Monique will be there, too.
