As we reported a couple of weeks ago, The JW Marriott Bonnet Creek installed Melissa Sallman as executive chef, with duties to include overseeing Sear + Sea (as opposed to oversearing See + Sea). Now comes word that Eric Marrero has been promoted to that restaurant’s sous chef position. He replaces, sort of, Alex Pyser, who had been listed as Sear + Sea’s chef de cuisine when the resort opened last year.
Marrero was part of S+S’s opening team and before that had been chef assistant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. With the recent opening of Illume, JW Marriott Bonnet Creek has two powerhouse dining experiences.
Rocco’s Tacos, the South Florida Tex-Mexer known for tableside quac and direct-from-the-bottle tequila shots, is looking to open a second Central Florida location, probably in Winter Park. Word is that the former Brio space in Winter Park Village is under consideration. Don’t start lining up – a new location won’t open until next summer, I’m told. The company is currently concentrating on getting a Sarasota outpost open first.
FusionFest’s Diversitastic! Experience, a monthly program to highlight cultures and cuisines from around the world, will next focus on the strange and mysterious land of Texas with a hickory-smoked evening at Cecil’s Texas Style BBQ in SoDo. The dinner will be July 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. Reservations at FusionFest.org.
And food delivery service Grubhub has been keeping a tab on what alcoholic drinks people ordered during the pandemic. The trendiest drinks of the year are:
- Dutch lager (Heineken et.al.)
- Hot sake
- Japanese beer
- Hibiscus Margarita
- Blood Orange Margarita
- Aperol Spritz
- Hard Seltzer
- Peach Paloma
- Piña Colada
- Mimosa
Lots of bubbles in that list. I hope the drinks got to their destinations without going flat.
