RusTeak, the restaurant and wine bar, closed its original location on Maguire Road in Ocoee yesterday. It plans to relocate not very far away to 1681 Amazing Way. (Apparently, naming streets is just as hard as naming restaurants.) There is no projected date for the new Ocoee location to open. So for now, the only RusTeak is the one in Thornton Park, which itself relocated not so long ago from College Park.
RusTeak opened about 10 years ago, replacing a forgettable restaurant called Tamboras Grill. It originally identified as a gastropub, because back then that was the “thing.”
The bar at 2000 N. Orange Ave. in the Ivanhoe district that was originally M Lounge is now Elevate Rooftop Lounge. Its official grand opening is this weekend.
On South Orange Avenue, at no. 255, a Mexican take on Hawaiian poke is planned, according to Brendan O’Connor of Bungalower. Poke Mexican Soul is the name, though there isn’t much poke-like on the website menu. Not much Mexican, either. Or soul-y. No opening date announced.
With all the hubbub associated with the recent announcement of Michelin Guide’s inaugural Florida edition, the James Beard Foundation Awards, which were handed out last week, just sort of drifted by unnoticed. Of course, Florida restaurants and chefs had been knocked out of contention on the final ballot. The big news is that the Best Chef: South award did not go to a New Orleans chef. So congratulations to Adam Evans of Automatic Seafood and Oysters in Birmingham. Other winners, if you’re interested.
