SoDoDoughCo, empty bread box, chef of record at Best New Restaurant winner, and three new tenants.
Remember all those times when I’ve said that naming a restaurant is hard? Well, sometimes it can be an easy thing, too. Like if you have a place in the Orlando district called SoDo and you want to open a pizza place. What else would you call it but So Dough Pizza Co.? That’s the inspired name Rob Bair, owner of Tin and Taco, has given his new concept, which will share space with the Michigan Street tacoteria. So Dough Pizza Co. (and I think you must pronounce Co. with a long O) will offer both Detroit and Chicago tavern style pies. Detroit pizzas are rectangle; Chi-tavern’s are round but cut into squares. There are other differences but that’s the only important thing right now. So Dough Pizza Co. is a great name but it might be a bit site specific if Bair wants to branch out. We’ll see.
Speaking of dough, Olde Hearth Bread Company, one of the charter vendors when East End Market opened in Oct. 2013, has vacated its booth there. OHBC is still baking bread, just not selling it at EEM.
When I announced that The Pinery was one of the winners of the 2021 Best New Restaurants Foodster Award, I noted that Naomi Freeman was the executive chef. It’s been pointed out to me that Freeman left the post four months ago and the kitchen is now being helmed by Steven Mattix.
Hatsuhana, a sushi restaurant that relocated from downtown Orlando to Apopka, has closed after 25 years. Not pandemic related and there weren’t any apparent issues with staffing, the owners were just ready to retire. Congratulations on a long run.
Some replacements:
F&D Cantina is set to open next week in the space that most recently was Jax Thornton Park. Before that it was Baoery and before that Cityfish. It started out as Central City Market back when the corner space where Soco now lives was a restaurant called Hue.
The College Park space that was home to RusTeak until it moved to Thornton Park will become the home of Thai Farm Kitchen, which also has a location in Brooklyn.
And King Bao, which has locations in Mills 50 and near UCF, will open in the Fairbanks Avenue building, pictured at top, that until recently housed Bad As’s Sandwich.
